Abstract
Repeated statements are rated as subjectively truer than comparable new statements, even though repetition alone provides no new, probative information (the illusory truth effect). Contrary to some theoretical predictions, the illusory truth effect seems to be similar in magnitude for repetitions occurring after minutes or weeks. This Registered Report describes a longitudinal investigation of the illusory truth effect (n = 608, n = 567 analysed) in which we systematically manipulated intersession interval (immediately, one day, one week, and one month) in order to test whether the illusory truth effect is immune to time. Both our hypotheses were supported: We observed an illusory truth effect at all four intervals (overall effect: χ2(1) = 169.91; Mrepeated = 4.52, Mnew = 4.14; H1), with the effect diminishing as delay increased (H2). False information repeated over short timescales might have a greater effect on truth judgements than repetitions over longer timescales. Researchers should consider the implications of the choice of intersession interval when designing future illusory truth effect research.
Highlights
Human judgements are influenced by the informational value of the content we experience, and by our subjective experience of information processing
Pairwise comparisons revealed that at every interval, estimated marginal means for repeated statements were significantly higher than those for new statements, indicating that the illusory truth effect was present at all four phases (Table 6)
Age Since all explanations of the illusory truth effect rely on memory, and memory performance varies with age, we investigated whether age modulated either the main effect, or the trajectory of the effect over time
Summary
Human judgements are influenced by the informational value of the content we experience, and by our subjective experience of information processing When judging truth or accuracy, people rate repeated statements as subjectively truer than comparable new statements (the illusory truth effect or repetitioninduced truth effect), even though repetition alone provides no new, probative information. Inferring truth from repetition is apposite in a world where most of the information people encounter is true, but repetition can create an illusion of truth for false information; the truth effect occurs for both true and false statements (Brown & Nix, 1996), and for both plausible and implausible ones The effect seems robust to individual differences in cognitive ability (De keersmaecker et al, 2019). It persists even when participants are warned to avoid it Reading misinformation might even reduce how unethical it feels to share that unambiguously false information on social media (Effron & Raj, 2019)
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