EOTO 2: Illusory Truth Effect

 Finding and deciphering truth from all the lies and misconceptions in the world has become increasingly more difficult as time and technology evolve. Like many things in this world, too much of anything is seldom a good thing. And, even if we do not want to admit it, with the first amendment we see direct proof. Having this freedom to speak about anything and everything on any platform has been both a blessing and a curse to ourselves and others. Especially with the evolution of technology, we can see new speaking platforms rise such as that of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., in which we can speak about anything factual or not, without repercussion. It is because of these platforms and advancements in technology that we see the emergence of the “Illusory Truth Effect.” Although this effect has been around for decades before this newfound rise in technology, we can see this effect prevalent now more than ever in the empty “truths” we can now so freely throw around the world with one push of a button. 

The Illusory Truth Effect is essentially having the tendency to believe something is true after being exposed to it multiple times; it is the emphasis of quantity over quality, and the concept that familiarity breeds trust. The discovery of this theory came to fruition in 1977 in the study of “Frequency and the Conference of Referential Validity,” conducted by Temple University’s Lynn Hasher and David Goldstein, and Villanova University’s Thomas Toppino. In this specific study, they hosted a randomized group of students in which they exposed sixty generic statements. Upon hearing these statements, the students were asked to rate how certain they were that each statement was true or false. Throughout the course of a couple weeks, they would bring these students in and have them rate their certainty of these statements, choosing to expose some statements more than others. Eventually over time, Goldstein, Hasher, and Toppino found that the more exposure the students had to certain statements, the more likely they were to rate/perceive the statement as true. Thus, the Illusory Truth Effect was born. 

Backpacking on their discoveries, it is said that every day we make an average of thirty-five thousand decisions. Whether that’s what time we choose to eat dinner, or even something as subconscious as how quickly we choose to break when approaching a red light. We are constantly making choices/decisions, and our mind is always at work. Consequently, because we make so many decisions daily, we often take mental shortcuts. These can be any type of decision making tool, such as using trial and error, the rule of thumb, or taking educated guesses. Because of this, we are more susceptible to just believe these false statements we see, just because we are using deductive reasoning and assuming because we have seen it multiple times it must have been true. 

Using this logic, we can then see how this effect can easily be used as a pawn in the political sphere. For example, propagandists and politicians' use of repetition of false facts leads to a gradual gain of following over time. Prime examples of this can be seen in both Hitler’s ideologies and the 2016 Presidential Election. Using a quote from Adolf Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kempf,” he says “slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea.” Being that Hitler was a firm believer in manifestation, he used this idea of repeating his “truth” to the people of Germany to corral an entire nation to believing this false narrative of purging certain religious and minority groups to create the biggest genocide of all time. He used the concept of the Illusory Truth Effect to instill this hatred for the minority in these people’s minds, and even got people to work for him and a large part of a nation to follow him and his manifesto as if it were the Bible. 

As mentioned before, another example of the Illusory Truth Effect in politics can be seen in the 2016 Presidential Election, with candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Although as a former businessman former President Donald Trump was well rehearsed with the Illusory Truth Effect, and has been seen using it on multiple occasions, here we are going to hone in on his perceptions of the United States involvement in the Iraq War. In an interview in 2004, Donald Trump was seen expressing his feeling that the United States needed to be involved in the happenings of the Iraq War. However, for his 2016 campaign, he claimed he wanted no involvement in Iraq, and wanted to keep the military involvement in those cases to a minimum. When the media resurfaced that interview, accusations of lying, manipulating the public to gain the anti-war voters’ vote, and his deceptive character were all called into question. Instead of owning up or explaining his seemingly change of heart, Trump deflected this issue by directly attacking the media for their “dishonest stereotypes” to validate his false claim that this 2004 statement was never said. And, unfortunately, with the Illusory Truth Effect, we tend to believe repetition sometimes more than hard/physical proof. So here we see Trump using this effect for his own political gain by manipulating the public using the effect, leading to a gain in followers and eventual success in the election. It is also important to note here how politicians manipulate both the truth and the public, as studies showed over half the nation felt Hillary Clinton was the better candidate, but because she lacked these manipulating techniques such as the Illusory Truth Effect, people saw her as “not trustworthy.” 

In addition to the political sphere, the Illusory Truth Effect can be seen as specifically damaging towards specific groups and minorities such as the LGBTQ community, religions, ethnicities, and race. There are many discriminatory misconceptions often made about the LGBTQ community, but one in particular is the HIV and AIDS pandemic that plagued the late 1900s. Here, we saw many people spreading the false narrative that gay men were “gross and dirty” humans for being gay, and eventually contracting these sexually transmitted diseases. This tarnished the LGBTQ community and allowed for people to believe this was true due to the repetition, and also allowed this to be a “truth” used by religious propagandists working against the morality of same sex couples. Another example seen in the ethnicities/religion sphere is from the 2017 London terrorist attacks. The image above was plastered all over news outlets, in which we see a Muslim woman walking on her phone with crying and upset caucasian people in the background. As I’m sure we all knew where this was going, this image was then used on social media and news outlets to spread the idea that this woman was “indifferent” to suffering victims and those around her, portraying the overall false stereotype that all Muslim’s are bad people who love to watch others suffer. When in fact the opposite is true, CNN even included a piece about how Muslims were standing with the victims, not with the people who identify with their religion. 

Finally, we see the ways in which this Illusory Truth Effect can affect ourselves and the future in front of us. With these new platforms mentioned such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., we have this newfound freedom on these platforms to speak freely and spread any news without the need for sources, thus leading to the rise of fake news and rumors. If enough news articles catch wind of a rumor and write a piece about it, many will be inclined to think it is true due to the amount of time they have seen a similar article. However here we are getting our wires crossed: repetition does not equal validity. Credibility cannot be gained through repetition. This effect has the power to destroy careers and the livelihoods of normal folk, companies, and celebrities alike, if we give it the power. Until we as a society can learn that, stop these mental shortcuts, and look through these articles and decipher what is true and what is not, we will be stuck in this subconscious loop forever.