The trick to truth

Research at the University of Waterloo is getting to the truth about truth.

People are more likely to believe something given as fact if it is backed up by something authoritative, such as a statistic. Jonathan Fugelsang of Waterloo’s psychology department, and Jason Ozubko of the psychology department at the University of Toronto, teamed up to publish a study that took the search for truth a step farther.

Stripped of supportive proof, something stated as fact seems to gain credibility in our minds if it is repeated again and again.

Participants in the study were given the same facts once or multiple times. Those who received the message four times found the facts the most compelling.

But repetition wasn’t the only factor. Those who were given a break between reading facts on their computer screens and responding to a task that relied on those facts were much more likely to be swayed by the factual information, even if it wasn’t true.

While the findings may be useful to lawyers, advertisers and other persuasive people, they also point to memory as a shaper of truth, and truth into belief.

“When something comes from within, you basically have to treat it as true or it would create dissonance,” says Fugelsang, associate professor in the cognitive psychology division.

Fugelsang admits that understanding how people make complex decisions based on facts — true or false — has made him more careful about what to believe. At the same time, unlocking the mysteries of behaviour may have made him more tolerant of the weird and illogical choices we all make.

“Honestly, before I went into this field, I’d see something and say, ‘What the heck were they thinking?’ But now I think, ‘They’re human.’ ”