Fluency and positivity as possible causes of the truth effect

Unkelbach, Christian; Bayer, Myriam; Alves, Hans; Koch, Alex; Stahl, Christoph

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.09.015

Cited by 35 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…If a person makes the same judgment many times, they also seem to be more confident that the answer is correct (e.g., Hertwig et al, 1997; Knutsson et al, 2011; Koriat, 2011, 2012; Unkelbach et al, 2011). Thus, when making the same perceptual judgment several times (e.g., “blue and black” ) people may convince themselves this must be the correct answer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress’ Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability

Karlsson

Allwood

2016

Front. Psychol.

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The Dress photograph, first displayed on the internet in 2015, revealed stunning individual differences in color perception. The aim of this study was to investigate if lay-persons believed that the question about The Dress colors was answerable. Past research has found that optimism is related to judgments of how answerable knowledge questions with controversial answers are (Karlsson et al., 2016). Furthermore, familiarity with a question can create a feeling of knowing the answer (Reder and Ritter, 1992). Building on these findings, 186 participants saw the photo of The Dress and were asked about the correct answer to the question about The Dress’ colors (“blue and black,” “white and gold,” “other, namely…,” or “there is no correct answer”). Choice of the alternative “there is no correct answer” was interpreted as believing the question was not answerable. This answer was chosen more often by optimists and by people who reported they had not seen The Dress before. We also found that among participants who had seen The Dress photo before, 19%, perceived The Dress as “white and gold” but believed that the correct answer was “blue and black.” This, in analogy to previous findings about non-believed memories (Scoboria and Pascal, 2016), shows that people sometimes do not believe the colors they have perceived are correct. Our results suggest that individual differences related to optimism and previous experience may contribute to if the judgment of the individual perception of a photograph is enough to serve as a decision basis for valid conclusions about colors. Further research about color judgments under ambiguous circumstances could benefit from separating individual perceptual experience from beliefs about the correct answer to the color question. Including the option “there is no correct answer” may also be beneficial.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress’ Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability

Karlsson

Allwood

2016

Front. Psychol.

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“…This so-called truth effect (see Dechêne, Stahl, Hansen, & Wänke, 2009) occurs regardless of a statement's content (Schwarz et al, 1991). The experience of fluency itself is influenced by a variety of factors, such as the frequency of prior stimulus exposure, previous primes, and the linguistic complexity as well as the visual clarity of the target information (see Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Unkelbach, Bayer, Alves, Koch, & Stahl, 2011). It is this last fluency manipulation that will be used here.…”

Section: Processing Fluency and Truth Judgmentsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…There was no interaction between mood and fluency, F(2, 76) = 0.08, NS, confirming that responses to fluent rather than disfluent claims were consistently faster across all mood conditions (Δt[positive]=425 ms, Δt[neutral]= 535 ms, Δt[negative] = 643 ms). Response latency is a common index of processing fluency, "although the relation between processing speed and the subjective fluency experience is far from perfect" (Unkelbach et al, 2011).…”

Section: Fluency Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling good and feeling truth: The interactive effects of mood and processing fluency on truth judgments

Koch

Forgas

2012

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…Enhanced processing fluency leads to a feeling of familiarity: People consider statements that are, for instance, easier to read (e.g., owing to color contrast or large font sizes) to be more familiar and, in turn, more credible when compared with statements that are more difficult to read (Reber & Schwarz, ; Unkelbach, ). The feeling of familiarity finally leads to higher subjectively perceived statement credibility (e.g., Parks & Toth, ; Reber & Schwarz, ; Unkelbach, ; Unkelbach, Bayer, Alves, Koch, & Stahl, ).…”

Section: Increased Credibility Of Statements Through Repetition: the mentioning

confidence: 99%

Helpful or Harmful? How Frequent Repetition Affects Perceived Statement Credibility

2013

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On the basis of experimental data, we study how repetition of a statement affects perceived statement credibility. We identify 2 counteracting effects: The first effect, known as “truth effect,” describes a positive relationship between repetition and statement credibility. People tend to ascribe higher credibility to messages that they repeatedly encounter. In contrast, the second effect occurs when repetition is taken too far. Here, an indirect and negative effect is identified and participants start to perceive the message as a persuasive attempt. This perception triggers reactance, which in turn considerably reduces participants' trust in the source and leads to a significant decrease in the overall credibility of the message. Our results broaden the understanding of the benefits and harms of repeated persuasive messages.

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Fluency and positivity as possible causes of the truth effect

Cited by 35 publications

References 24 publications

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress’ Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress’ Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability

Feeling good and feeling truth: The interactive effects of mood and processing fluency on truth judgments

Helpful or Harmful? How Frequent Repetition Affects Perceived Statement Credibility

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