The big lie, eh truth.

I know it’s happened to you. You’re in conversation – about something controversial or not – and someone responds with a statement of their opinion, which they state as fact but in reality is not true. Whether it’s about the vaccine, politics, or how much nonprofit leaders are paid, they know the truth. As you try to continue the conversation, they repeat the same statement in response. No matter what you say. Frustrating for sure, and hard to move forward in a conversation.

Unfortunately, what your conversation partner has learned is that repeating a statement somehow seems to make it true, even if it’s not. 

The illusory truth effect, also known as the illusion of truth, describes how, when we hear the same false information repeated again and again, we often come to believe it is true. Troublingly, this even happens when people should know better—that is, when people initially know that the misinformation is false.

With the prevalence of social media, it’s incredibly easy for misinformation to spread quickly to huge numbers of people. The evidence suggests that global politics have already been strongly influenced by online propaganda campaigns, run by bad actors who understand that all they need to do to help a lie gain traction is to repeat it again and again.

This behavior has seeped into everyday conversation.

Research on lying has yielded some rather amazing results. One study has concluded that, on average, people are told 200 lies per day. Negotiating life is difficult, this particular study reminds us, and lying — small little shadings of the truth — helps lubricate our social encounters. If lying helps us "to cope with reality," it would seem logical to conclude that it is necessary for survival in modern life. Logical perhaps, but...

All of us like to think our opinions are true, and how firmly we believe the truth of our opinions can often be gauged by how loud our voices become when expressing those opinions, or how many times we repeat them. The reality, however, is that the loudness of a voice has nothing to do with truth.

Imagine instead developing a reputation for tactful but complete honesty upon which others know they can always rely. What an invaluable resource you'd become! People who say they want to hear the truth but are in reality more interested in being praised will quickly learn either not to ask you for your views or that the value of hearing the truth, no matter how painful, is greater than keeping their egos protected because it affords them the opportunity to reflect and self-improve. Others often have a far more accurate perspective on our character flaws than we do. If we're genuinely interested in improving ourselves or our work, what we need from them isn't flattery; it's the truth.

Barbara, Organizations by Design