EOTO Terms and Concepts

    The Illusory Truth Effect, a theory also known as the illusion of truth, describes how when the same false information is repeated over and over, it is believed to be true. It even happens when people should know better and when people initially know the information is false. When the truth is being evaluated, people take the information given to them and rely on whether or not the information is familiar or in line with their understanding. It is logical to compare new information to what is already known to be true, but repetition makes statements easier to process/believe compared to new unrepeated statements, which can lead to believing the repeated statement whether it is true or not. 
    

    The Illusory Truth Effect does not happen by accident.  Marketers, Propagandists and politicians understand that repetition gets people to accept your message. When companies or politicians repeat things again and again, we should recognize that this is a deliberate strategy to get people to accept what they are saying as the truth. The commercial below may be marketing a product that may or may not work, but if you see this ad often enough, will you be tempted to give it a try?  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_SwD7RveNE
  

     The implications affect both individuals and society as a whole. An individual may actually be well educated and informed, but they may still end up making decisions that have serious consequences. Or at the very least, they walk around oblivious to what is actually truthful. This could be something as harmless as a nutrition fad an individual read about that is doing them no good. Of course, society as a whole can also be affected by the decisions of individuals prone to the Illusory Truth Effect. Society can be affected once a statement moves past just an individual. In the age of social media, it is incredibly easy for misinformation to spread quickly across huge numbers of people. Victims can even include people who don’t believe what is being said. An example of that was the toilet paper shortage at the beginning of COVID 19. Even though there was plenty of toilet paper in the country, and even though grocery stores were not going to close, some news organizations and parts of social media created the illusion that all businesses would shut down and shortages would be everywhere. The fact that so many people thought there was going to be a shortage, actually created one. Another example with more serious consequences was the anti vaccine movement in parts of the U.S. A false rumor regarding vaccines causing autism in children started widespread fear. This led many parents, some highly educated, to not vaccinate their children against measles. Even though measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, cases have been going up steadily in recent years, as can be seen in the chart below.  

    

    
    While the Illusory Truth Effect has mostly negative consequences for individuals and society, the fact that it exists leads many people and organizations to fact check and think critically when they hear something. There are now news organizations and websites dedicated to checking facts, statements and rumors. www.snopes.com is an example of this. If the negative consequences of the Illusory Truth Effect cause more people to think critically, more news organizations to fact check, and make more people aware of attempts to deceive them, some good will result.

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect