Yangxueqing Jiang

If you consider yourself a climate science supporter, you probably wouldn’t think simple exposure to a skeptic’s claim could shift your views. Our new research has produced worrying findings. Climate misinformation may be more effective than we’d like to think because of a phenomenon called the illusory truth effect. In short, we are more likely to believe a lie if we encounter it repeatedly. Worse, the effect works immediately — a lie seems to be more true even after just one repetition.

Citation: Jiang Y, Schwarz N, Reynolds KJ, Newman EJ (2024) Repetition increases belief in climate-skeptical claims, even for climate science endorsers. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0307294. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307294 Editor: Cengiz Erisen, Yeditepe University, TÜRKIYE Received: July 26, 2023; Accepted: July 2, 2024; Published: August 7, 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Jiang et al.

Pointing out that someone else is wrong is a part of life. And journalists need to do this all the time — their job includes helping sort what’s true from what’s not. But what if people just don’t like hearing corrections? Our new research, published in the journal Communication Research, suggests that’s the case. In two studies, we found that people generally trust journalists when they confirm claims to be true but are more distrusting when journalists correct false claims.