SS5 - The Influences of Affect and Credibility on the Illusory Truth Effect
SCURS Disciplines
Psychology
Document Type
General Poster
Invited Presentation Choice
Not Applicable
Abstract
Repetitive stimuli, such as phrases and statements, can produce the Illusory Truth Effect (Begg et al., 1992), a phenomenon in which individuals are repeatedly presented with statements, leading them to believe them regardless of their validity. First studied by Hasher et al. (1977), the effect was exhibited when participants were presented with a series of true and false statements. The more they heard a statement, the more likely they were to judge it as true, compared to new statements. Although the Illusory Truth Effect has been well-researched since its initial discovery, its role in shaping beliefs through repeated information on social media has been less explored. The current study aims to present how the influence of repeated statements encountered in news sources and/or on social media affects an individual’s perception of the truth through the Illusory Truth Effect.
Participants (N ≈ 80) will be recruited via SONA, an online human-subjects management system, and will receive course credit for participation.
Part 1: 15 ‘credible’ (i.e., news source) images and 15 ‘less credible’ (i.e., social media source) images will be shown. Both credibility conditions will have 5 positive, negative, and neutral affect statements. Participants will rate each image’s content by truthfulness on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (completely false) to 7 (completely true).
Part 2: participants will return 48 hours later and be asked to rate the truthfulness of the 30 original statements seen on social media and news website images, and 15 new statements without the source cited. No images will be shown in part 2. Data will be collected via Qualtrics.
A 3 (Statement type: credible, less credible, new) x 3 (Affect: positive, negative, neutral) repeated-measures factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) will assess the interaction between statement type and statement affect.
It is predicted that repeated statements will be rated as more true than new statements, and credible sources will be rated truer than less credible sources. We hypothesize that participants will rate credible positive statements truer than credible negative statements, and credible neutral statements, and less credible sources.
Start Date
10-4-2026 3:25 PM
Location
CASB 108
End Date
10-4-2026 3:40 PM
SS5 - The Influences of Affect and Credibility on the Illusory Truth Effect
CASB 108
Repetitive stimuli, such as phrases and statements, can produce the Illusory Truth Effect (Begg et al., 1992), a phenomenon in which individuals are repeatedly presented with statements, leading them to believe them regardless of their validity. First studied by Hasher et al. (1977), the effect was exhibited when participants were presented with a series of true and false statements. The more they heard a statement, the more likely they were to judge it as true, compared to new statements. Although the Illusory Truth Effect has been well-researched since its initial discovery, its role in shaping beliefs through repeated information on social media has been less explored. The current study aims to present how the influence of repeated statements encountered in news sources and/or on social media affects an individual’s perception of the truth through the Illusory Truth Effect.
Participants (N ≈ 80) will be recruited via SONA, an online human-subjects management system, and will receive course credit for participation.
Part 1: 15 ‘credible’ (i.e., news source) images and 15 ‘less credible’ (i.e., social media source) images will be shown. Both credibility conditions will have 5 positive, negative, and neutral affect statements. Participants will rate each image’s content by truthfulness on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (completely false) to 7 (completely true).
Part 2: participants will return 48 hours later and be asked to rate the truthfulness of the 30 original statements seen on social media and news website images, and 15 new statements without the source cited. No images will be shown in part 2. Data will be collected via Qualtrics.
A 3 (Statement type: credible, less credible, new) x 3 (Affect: positive, negative, neutral) repeated-measures factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) will assess the interaction between statement type and statement affect.
It is predicted that repeated statements will be rated as more true than new statements, and credible sources will be rated truer than less credible sources. We hypothesize that participants will rate credible positive statements truer than credible negative statements, and credible neutral statements, and less credible sources.