I heard an astonishing story the other day while listening to NPR about how, despite compelling evidence, a lie will persist if told enough times. An individual can watch video evidence that the person has lied yet still believes the lie because it was repeated so many times. Being an avid student of social science, I was compelled to find the research to back this up, and it was unbelievable. This is how the liar-in-chief has so many of his followers believing everything he says. Repeat the lie enough times, and you can get people to swear the earth is a square (yup, one step further from the ridiculous lie that the flat-earth society clings to). So, I know y’all are dying to learn what I discovered.
- There is a concept called TBR or truth-by-repetition, which has been researched as early as the 1970s.
- One possibility for how TBR occurs is something called processing fluency, which is a fancy term for the fact that our brains have an easier time processing something we’ve already heard before.
- For a long time, the research suggested that TBR only worked on statements where the truth value was ambiguous or unknown.
- A study in 2015 applied TBR to statements that participants had prior knowledge of, such as, “The Atlantic Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth.” These studies furthered our knowledge of TBR by suggesting TBR could work on any kind of claim whether the truth value was ambiguous or not. But because the US has a large swath of people who aren’t particularly well-read or possess even basic geography, the studies were inconclusive because too many individuals lacked the knowledge on the fact that the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth.
- So, the researchers decided to test out the TBR theory on past knowledge using the statement that the “Earth is a perfect square” and “Benjamin Franklin lived 150 years.” Believe it or not, after repeating this lie just five times, participants started giving credence to statements that were obvious lies. Thus proving that TBR does not just work on ambiguous or unknown statements.
- Ironically, this works in the opposite direction. Which is why people are so skeptical about the media. A study in 2020 found that repeating claims at high frequency decreases their perceived truth value.
- The bottom line is that repetition is strongly linked to perceived truth, and depending on the quality and context, the correlation can be either positive or negative.
- In our fast-paced world with social media and avenues to distribute lies to millions of people at once, propaganda, which is what we’re really talking about, is a highly effective tool for politicians, and Donald Trump is a master at this.
So, in conclusion, I’d like to say, The Love Demand is the best romance you’ll read this year. Let me repeat, The Love Demand is the best romance you’ll read this year. And again, The Love Demand is the best romance you’ll read this year. Dare I say, The Love Demand is the best romance you’ll read this year. One more time, The Love Demand is the best romance you’ll read this year. Whew, that’s five times, so surely y’all will now believe that statement and run to your computer to buy the book! Kidding, but hopeful…click the links below to get this book or many others!
The Love Demand
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Unconventional Lovers Now in audio
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Pleasure Workers in Audio
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Love Sins Available – The Final chapter in The Organization Universe
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The Final Chapter in the original Organization series is now in Audible
Catch up with Books 1 and 2 in The Next Generation Series
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Where it all began….
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Annette Mori 
Hi 🙂 I love your newsletter. I’m responding because I noticed in point 4 you claimed “the Atlantic ocean is he biggest ocean on earth” which is wrong, the biggest ocean is the one called in English ‘The Pacific Ocean’. Probably a simple mistake but it bothered me. Have a good weekend 😊
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+biggest+ocean+in+the+world&oq=the+biggest+oc&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBEAAYgAQyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCggIEAAYChgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhgeMggIChAAGBYYHjIICAsQABgWGB4yCAgMEAAYFhgeMggIDRAAGBYYHjIICA4QABgWGB7SAQgxMTM5ajBqN6gCCbACAfEFESmJPMT7zW_xBREpiTzE-81v&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
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Oh,my goodness, I just proved the point of the study, because I grabbed this information and misread the article citing this study…proving that I readily accepted that fact, even though a niggling thought in the back of my mind was that, no, the Pacific ocean in the largest…LOL…I’ve corrected it! Although, I’m guessing loads of people aren’t quite sure and make all kinds of geography mistakes, or accept whatever shit is given to them (which is probably why Gulf of America might be readily accepted)…still laughing about this! Thank you!
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That’s cool and kinda funny. You’re welcome 😁
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