The Dangers of the Illusory Truth Effect

 

     The illusory truth effect is a type of cognitive bias in which one’s brain is prone to believing the things we see repeatedly, despite how accurate or inaccurate these concepts may be. In other words, if one were to see a news story every day about how a category five hurricane is going to take out the midwest, one would eventually believe it to be factual- regardless of how illogical this statement is. When analyzing whether something is true our brain seeks to examine the material in the context of what we already know and what is familiar to one. As absurd as such a statement is, the repeated exposure to said information causes it to be familiar and thus, processed more quickly and/or fluently. Additionally, the human brain has learned over time that the quicker stimuli is processed, the more familiar it is, and thus, the more truthful it must be. In this sense, the illusory truth effect works in tandem with the processing fallacy known as the processing fluency account causing us to link fluency with truthfulness and thus, false information to be filed as factual. This cognitive bias can truly take over within any topic of interest and as one can imagine, this bias left unchecked can have a wide range of negative implications with drastic effects on not only said individual but for society as a whole.

    When thinking of the ways in which this may affect society as a whole, one must consider the current political climate. The political environment in our country these past two presidential elections has been hostile and unstable at best. With so many strong opinions coming out and being advertised regarding the presidential candidates, who deserves the role and what each candidate supports has been an extensive topic of conversation for years. Unfortunately, political campaigns tend to take advantage of the illusory truth effect in order to sway their viewers into voting for their candidate. Oftentimes these campaigns will spread negative information about the opposing side that may even be entirely baseless. The problem with this is in the frequency of these advertisements. Seeing a campaign once that claims the opponent to be a thief likely won’t hold too much weight in our minds. However, seeing a number of various campaigns that claim the opponent to be a thief automatically causes our brain to perceive the information as truthful. This can have extreme effects on voting and in turn, on society. Additionally, the dissemination of information is greatly increased in today’s age of technology. Just turning the TV on or searching something on google can introduce our brain to a variety of information with no real “checks and balances” to the information being advertised. Because of this, people have begun to believe the information they have been exposed to OVER scientific evidence and facts such as, global temperature rise and increasing ocean water levels. This type of false advertising can have life threatening consequences. In this example, if enough people decide to believe familiar information over factual information- due to the illusory truth effect- not enough change will occur and our Earth will no longer be able to sustain us. Interestingly, this cognitive bias appears to impact all backgrounds of life similarly. In other words, this mistake is not due to lack of education or one’s environment but simply due to the processing fallacy our brains subconsciously make in an attempt to conserve mental resources.

When considering how this cognitive bias may impact my friends, family, and specifically my generation, social media must be taken into account. My generation is constantly on our smart phones with immediate access to all types of information. Recently, platforms such as facebook and twitter have become increasingly political with conversations and coverage of major events occurring all over the country such as the BLM protests and the raid on the capitol building. While it is our first amendment right to express one’s opinion and spread information regarding what one believes to be factual, the immediate and constant feeding of information can be incredibly dangerous. Unfortunately, on said platforms there is no real way to tell what is false vs what is accurate and recent developments of technology now allow people to edit or even create completely new pictures, videos, etc. aiding in the dissemination of false material. Additionally,  the algorithm on platforms like twitter and instagram take note of the videos, pictures, and posts that we like and then put more posts like those onto our feed. While the intention was to create a feed tailored to our specific likes and interests, this has become dangerous in times of political debate. If I happen to spend time reading a completely false news post, I am more likely to see more information on my feed about that news story and from that source. This can easily trigger the processing fluency account and thus, the illusory truth effect.

Sources:

Hassan, Aumyo, and Sarah J. Barber. “The Effects of Repetition Frequency on the Illusory Truth Effect.” Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, vol. 6, no. 38, 13 May 2021, doi:10.1186/s41235-021-00301-5.

“What Is... the Illusory Truth Effect.” Mental Health @ Home, 7 Aug. 2020, mentalhealthathome.org/2020/08/07/what-is-illusory-truth-effect/.