Before TheDonald ever ran for president, psychologists and behavioral scientists identified the illusory truth effect.  (One of the first discussions was back in 1977 by Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino [Frequency and the  conference of referential validity].)

Basically, the data demonstrate the tendency of folks to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure to the (knowingly) false information.  As we now know, “truth” is assessed by relying on what feels familiar or our prior understanding of the matter.

The problem is that even the best of us- those who pride themselves on seeking out the truth always- are prone to fall into that comfort zone…because we’ve been repeatedly exposed to what we like, we start to feel that it’s true- despite the fact that somewhere in the back of our minds, we are nagged about the “truth” of this belief.  Despite the fact that we are supposedly rational beings, and no rational being would accept a statement as true without first examining it- we simply don’t.

Because we are rarely rational beings.  With the 35000 or more decisions we make each day- and the plethora of data thrown at us from all directions, we simply can’t (or is that won’t?) process everything as thoroughly as we should.   We rely on shortcuts (i.e, heuristics) to make sense of what we see and hear.   And, so we err in judgement.

As Nobel Prize recipient David Kahneman explains, we have two “thinking” systems in our brains. The first is fast and automatic- we are not even terrible aware of it  The second, under our conscious control, effects deeper processing- and drains most of our cognitive resources. So, we tend to rely on the first system- without realizing that’s what we are doing.   As Kahneman asks, “If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets.   Too many of us respond 100 minutes- despite the fact that the answer is 5 minutes.   The less effort needed to process something, the more positively we feel about it.  (This is the “mere exposure effect”, which explains why we feel more positive about things we’ve previously encountered, regardless of how briefly that was.)

That’s why TheDonald repeatedly avers information that he knows to be false.  Because he expects us to fall for it- to make it more difficult for us to seek out the real truth and just enter the comfort zone (i.e, doing nothing) and accepting his falsehoods as reality.

Social media- especially as practiced by Russian and Chinese trolls- along with the GOP party apparatus- capitalize on this propaganda machine.  The internet is the breeding ground for “fake news”- false rumors, conspiracy theories,  and lies.  Fake news reaches 1500 folks six times faster than does real facts.  And, then, they are 70% more likely to be repeated (compared to real facts).

Which means we must take the time- before we spread a “fact” to ensure what we are passing along is, indeed, true.

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