“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,” is an informal rule often attributed to the Nazi chief of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Some might have expected that with the dawn of the digital age, in which people are now free to verify any dubious claim or information, we’d naturally see fewer lies being spun in the public space. But many could argue that the opposite is true, with unchecked tech platforms becoming cesspools of misinformation and disinformation. The internet — though rich in information and open — may have been Goebbels’ dream come true, were he alive to see it.
Scholars are still trying to figure out how to inoculate social media users against fake news and blatant lies. Frankly, it seems like a losing battle so far, but scientists are making progress on at least one front: getting a better handle on the psychological mechanisms that make people susceptible to misinformation.
One such mechanism is known as the Truth-by-Repetition (TBR) effect, which suggests that repeating a statement increases the likelihood it will be perceived as true. Previous research has suggested that this effect is valid when the repeating statement sounds true. Maybe there’s a half-truth or maybe the people who are exposed to the false claim lack enough information to call it out. But a new study shows that the TBR effect works, at least to some degree, even with some of the most outlandish claims — and perhaps that’s not very surprising considering the things your uncle...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...