Blog #11 EOTO Presentations

 When listening to each one, teach one presentations, I found the illusory truth effect to be very interesting. This theory suggests that it is a human tendency to believe any repeated statement as true. The repetition of the message influences human perception of validity. At some point, we have all probably done this whether we realized it or not. Sometimes it is just simply easier to believe a lie than to really find out the truth.

The illusory truth effect was introduced by Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino in 1977. Some examples of this is the Iraq F.W.D myth, when there was false claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and President Obama not being born in the U.S. This shows that serious lies can be extremely harmful to society and politics. I believe that the rise of technology most likely had an impact on this theory due to ordinary people being able to spread what they want on social media. We know that lies and rumors spread like wildfire on social media. During presentations it was also mentioned that this happens whether people realize it or not, this highlights that is always important to thoroughly research. 

Alex suggested that we use the truth sandwich to tell the truth and stop the spread of harmful lies. This technique was created in 2018 by George Lakoff. To reinforce what is the truth, we begin by telling the truth followed by what the lie and how its a lie to finally restating the truth. That way people are hearing the truth twice and was left with it last. to read more about the sandwich effect click here.

To me the illusory truth effect makes sense, but I don't think the lies are the key factor here. I think that people just remember what they hear frequently whether it's a truth or a lie. It reminds me of studying for a test, we resort to cramming information in our brain to retain it so when it naturally occurs we are of course going to remember it. However, I do think it is important to be aware that we do this especially when it can result in misinformation.