The first condition is logical, as people compare new information with what they already know to be true. Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new, unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful.
The illusory truth effect has also been linked toĀ hindsight bias, in which the recollection of confidence is skewed after the truth has been received.
In a 2015 study, researchers discovered thatĀ familiarityĀ can overpowerĀ rationalityĀ and that repetitively hearing that a certain fact is wrong can affect the hearer's beliefs. Researchers attributed the illusory truth effect's impact on participants who knew the correct answer to begin with, but were persuaded to believe otherwise through the repetition of a falsehood, to "processing fluency".
The illusory truth effect plays a significant role in such fields asĀ election campaigns,Ā advertising,Ā news media, andĀ political propaganda.
Although the truth effect has been demonstrated scientifically only in recent years, it is a phenomenon with which people have been familiar for millennia. One study notes that the Roman statesmanĀ CatoĀ closed each of his speeches with a call to destroyĀ CarthageĀ ("Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam"), knowing that the repetition would breed agreement, and thatĀ NapoleonĀ reportedly "said that there is only one figure in rhetoric of serious importance, namely, repetition", whereby a repeated affirmation fixes itself in the mind "in such a way that it is accepted in the end as a demonstrated truth".
Others who have taken advantage of the truth effect have includedĀ Quintilian,Ā Ronald Reagan,Ā Bill Clinton,Ā George W. Bush,Ā Donald Trump, andĀ Marcus AntoniusĀ inĀ Shakespeare'sĀ Julius Caesar.
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