Illusory Truth Effect

The quotation, "Repeat a lie often enough and people will eventually come to believe it," has often been attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Whether you believe this to be true or not, decades of research on what psychology calls the "illusory truth effect" have validated this to be true.

What Is It?

Also known as the validity effect, truth effect, or the reiteration effect, the illusory truth effect "...is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.). The phenomenon was first identified and described in a 1977 study at Villanova University and Temple University by Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino. In a 2015 study, researchers discovered that "...familiarity can overpower rationality and that repetitively hearing that a certain fact is wrong can affect the hearer's beliefs" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.). The illusory truth effect plays a significant role in such fields as election campaigns, advertising, news media, political propaganda, and has been linked to "hindsight bias", in which "the recollection of confidence is skewed after the truth has been received" ("Illusory truth effect", n.d.).

Use Throughout History

As previously mentioned, the illusory truth effect has been used by the Nazis, who favored the repetition of lies to sell the public on Hitler and the Nazi party's greatness. It has also been used in George Orwell's novel 1984, which "...portrayed a fictitious dystopia inspired by the Soviet Union under Stalin in which a totalitarian political party oppresses the public through 'doublethink' propaganda epitomized in the slogan, 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength'" (Pierre, J., 2020). Lastly, the illusory truth effect has been an effective component of advertising (see puffing).

Use In The Present

The Nazi party is no more, 1984 has been published, but the illusory truth effect has still been a part of advertising. Other than that, the effect also finds its place in politics. This has been especially the case during Donald Trump's 2016-2020 presidency with "fake news". Furthermore, the illusory truth effect has been used with newspaper headlines whose statements are framed as questions (for example: "Is President Obama a Muslim?").

My Opinion

I thought it was interesting to learn about an effect that would have really helped me during my senior year of high school. Back then I was taking AP Psychology and reading 1984 in English. I'm surprised that I didn't learn about this earlier. I see this in the media all the time and on particular websites. I would highly recommend sharing this phenomenon with others.

Related Articles:

Illusory truth effect (Wikipedia)

Illusory Truth, Lies, and Political Propaganda: Part 1