Illusory Truth Effect

The Illusory Truth Effect is by definition when we hear the same false information repeatedly and on such a constant basis that we end up believing the information as fact and not as fiction. Many would argue that if they knew the information was false to begin with that, they wouldn’t believe it. Well according to Forbes author Marshall Shepard, even if a person knows the information is false, if they hear the repeated false information enough times, they start to believe that the information. They start to question what they know and start to think that the information they believed to be true is actually false and the false information is actually true. You may be asking how this is possible and the simple answer is our brains do too much. An adult makes about 35,000 decisions a day on average and that takes a toll on our mental energy. The brain is a muscle, and it gets tired too just like your legs or your arms. Another reason is that we are cognitively lazy. According to behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman, as described by The Decision Lab, we have two different decision-making systems in our brains. The first is the one that makes easy, automatic decisions for us without us even knowing. The second system, however, is the system that handles and deals with the deeper thinking that we do consciously. The second system, as you can imagine, also requires more energy and causes more strain on us cognitively. So, in turn, we tend to rely more on system one, even if we don’t realize we are. This allows us to not have to analyze every little bit of information we come across in everyday life and just come up with quick, easy, sometimes barely rationalized decisions that come with the consequences associated with that, in this case believing false information. 

 

One reason why this is such a big topic now is because of the rise of misinformation on social media. One big example of this is the current COVID-19 pandemic. The amount of social media posts giving out false information on COVID is astonishing. Toward the beginning of the pandemic there were a lot of people who didn’t believe half the stuff the scientists were saying due to the fact that there was so much misinformation out on social media that was being repeated through social media post after social media post. The misinformation doesn’t even stop at global pandemic related topics, Shepard states that while he was doing research for his article he realized that there was a lot of misinformation out on social media about “heat lightning”. The thing is that “heat lightning” is actually just a thunderstorm that is too far away for the sound to travel but the light from the lightning bolt does. 

 

You might be asking yourself, what can I do to avoid falling victim to the Illusory Truth Effect? Well, it’s simple but requires some conscious thought. We, as a society, need to learn to think about what we read. We need to learn not to take things at face value and to dig a little deeper, even if it takes five minutes out of our day, we can drastically improve the quality of the information we consume. We also need to learn how to quickly verify the sources we get our news from or stumble across while trying to figure out something. It is usually pretty easy to find the differences between a reputable source and one whose soul purpose is to spread false information. However, since were in the world of social media and almost anyone can create a website now, it takes a little more careful looking than just a glance over.