¿Por qué creemos más fácilmente la desinformación cuando se repite muchas veces?

El efecto de verdad ilusoria

explicó.
Bias

¿Qué es el efecto de verdad ilusoria?

El efecto de verdad ilusoria, también conocido como ilusión de verdad, describe cómo, cuando oímos la misma información falsa repetida una y otra vez, a menudo llegamos a creer que es cierta. Resulta preocupante que esto ocurra incluso cuando la gente debería saberlo mejor, es decir, cuando la gente sabe inicialmente que la información errónea es falsa.

Dónde se produce este sesgo

Imagina que últimamente hay un resfriado en la oficina y quieres evitar ponerte enfermo. A lo largo de los años, has oído decir a mucha gente que tomar vitamina C puede ayudar a prevenir las enfermedades, así que te haces con unas deliciosas gominolas de vitamina C con sabor a naranja. Más tarde descubres que no hay pruebas de que la vitamina C prevenga los resfriados (¡aunque puede hacer que los resfriados desaparezcan antes!)18.

Referencias

  1. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.
  2. Zajonc, R. B., & Rajecki, D. W. (1969). Exposure and affect: A field experiment. Psychonomic Science17(4), 216-217.
  3. Fazio, L. K., Brashier, N. M., Payne, B. K., & Marsh, E. J. (2015). Knowledge does not protect against illusory truth. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General144(5), 993-1002. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000098
  4. Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science359(6380), 1146-1151. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559
  5. Meyer, R. (2018, March 8). The grim conclusions of the largest-ever study of fake news. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/largest-study-ever-fake-news-mit-twitter/555104/
  6. Samuels, E. (2020, February 21). How misinformation on WhatsApp led to a mob killing in India. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/21/how-misinformation-whatsapp-led-deathly-mob-lynching-india/
  7. Anderson, J., & Rainie, L. (2020, August 17). The future of truth and misinformation online. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/
  8. Dreyfuss, E. (2017, February 11). Want to make a lie seem true? Say it again. And again. And again. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2017/02/dont-believe-lies-just-people-repeat/
  9. Montpetit, J., & MacFarlane, J. (2020, September 12). Latest anti-mask protest in Montreal draws large crowds who say threat of COVID-19 overstated. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/anti-mask-protest-montreal-1.5722033
  10. Warren, M. (2019, June 26). Higher intelligence and an analytical thinking style offer no protection against “The illusory truth effect” – Our tendency to believe repeated claims are true. Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/06/26/higher-intelligence-and-an-analytical-thinking-style-offer-no-protection-against-the-illusory-truth-effect-our-tendency-to-believe-repeated-claims-are-more-likely-to-be-true/
  11. Warren, M. (2020, April 16). When false claims are repeated, we start to believe they are true — Here’s how behaving like a fact-checker can help. Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/09/12/when-false-claims-are-repeated-we-start-to-believe-they-are-true-heres-how-behaving-like-a-fact-checker-can-help/
  12. Fleming, N. (2020, June 17). Coronavirus misinformation, and how scientists can help to fight it. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01834-3
  13. Hasher, L., Goldstein, D., & Toppino, T. (1977). Frequency and the Conference of Referential Validity. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior16, 107-112. http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/hasher-et-al-jvvb-1977.pdf
  14. Pennycook, G., Cannon, T. D., & Rand, D. G. (2018). Prior exposure increases perceived accuracy of fake news. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(12), 1865–1880. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000465
  15. White, C. M., & Hernandez, A. V. (2020). Why your Patients’ Believing Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine are 90% Effective for COVID‐19 is 100% Dangerous. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
  16. McGinley, L. (2020, July 16). Hydroxychloroquine studies show drug is not effective for early treatment of mild covid-19. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/16/hydroxychloroquine-studies-show-drug-is-not-effective-early-treatment-mild-covid-19/
  17. Caulfield, T. (2020, April 19). How coronavirus is reinforcing the real-life risks of celebrity woo. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/dr-oz-s-hydroxychloroquine-advocacy-seduces-trump-coronavirus-wellness-woo-ncna1185596
  18. Douglas, R., Chalker, E., & Treacy, B. (1998). Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd000980
  19. Krockow, E. (2018, September 27). How many decisions do we make each day? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/stretching-theory/201809/how-many-decisions-do-we-make-each-day
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