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Related Experiment Video

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The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling
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Stable truthiness effect across the lifespan.

Daniel G Derksen1, Megan E Giroux1, Eryn J Newman2

  • 1Department of Psychology.

Developmental Psychology
|March 21, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The truthiness effect, where people believe claims more when paired with photos, remains consistent across all age groups. This phenomenon, the tendency to believe information presented with supporting visuals, shows no significant age-related differences in magnitude.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Media Psychology

Background:

  • The truthiness effect describes the tendency to perceive claims as true when accompanied by semantically related but uninformative photos.
  • This effect occurs even when visual information does not aid in verifying the claim's accuracy.
  • Previous research has not extensively explored age-related variations in the truthiness effect across the lifespan.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the magnitude of the truthiness effect across a wide age range.
  • To determine if age influences the tendency to rate trivia claims as true when presented with related images.
  • To examine truthiness in diverse cultural and linguistic settings.

Main Methods:

  • Participants (N=414, ages 3-87) rated the veracity of trivia claims presented with or without a semantically related photo.
  • Data collected in two diverse environments: a community science center and a psychology laboratory.
  • Participants represented various linguistic and ethnic backgrounds.

Main Results:

  • Participants across all age groups showed a truthiness effect, rating claims with photos as more true than those without.
  • The magnitude of the truthiness effect was consistent and stable across the entire lifespan, from childhood to old age.
  • No significant age-related differences were found in the strength of the truthiness phenomenon.

Conclusions:

  • The truthiness effect is a robust cognitive bias that is present and consistent throughout human development.
  • Age does not appear to be a significant moderating factor in the susceptibility to the truthiness effect.
  • Future research should explore potential subtle influences or contextual factors that might affect truthiness across ages.