40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In

"Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the 'illusory truth effect' which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible," Lee from Boston University told Bored Panda. He noted that scientists have known about this for decades, but the idea goes back to antiquity.

"Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn't hurt to repeat a true thing. And of course, for falsehood, this was one of the main propaganda tactics in Nazi Germany, where Hitler's propaganda minister understood the 'repetition effect.'"

At the core of the illusory truth effect lies the idea that if you repeat a falsehood over and over and over again, people will eventually begin to believe it. Lee noted that researchers like Lisa Fazio continue to work on this.

The fact remains that the illusory truth effect works in real life, even if we're aware of it. It's a very humbling experience for everyone. "I understand cognitive bias, yet last election season I kept seeing signs for the same candidate running for local office around my town. I thought, 'Wow, I guess everyone is voting for her.' It turns out I was just walking my dog in the neighborhood where she lived, and her friends and neighbors had up lots of signs! So I fooled myself."

I wanted to get Lee's take on how best to approach news stories and facts. On the one hand, we need to have open yet scientific minds. On the other hand, we simply don't have enough time to be skeptical about each and every tidbit of info. So we have to balance between the two extremes and focus on finding accurate sources of information.

"It would be exhausting to fact check every single news item we hear. In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I'd say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source," Lee explained to me.

"Look for an organization that does investigative journalism (and doesn't just repeat information from other sources), double sources its quotations, discloses conflicts of interest, etc. Once we've found that we can relax a bit and trust the reporting behind the stories. Do we still need to be on guard? Yes. Even The New York Times can make mistakes. Or individual reporters can have biases. But that doesn't mean 'all sources are equal.'"

Media literacy, according to Lee, is essential moving forward. "There are various sources for media literacy that can help. They teach this to KIDS in Finland! It's easy to learn. Is the story copyrighted? Is it dated? Is there a byline? Are other stories by the author solid? Is it published in a source that has been reliable in the past? Does it seem plausible— if not then you can do some research," he listed the questions we should be asking ourselves as we evaluate an article, the news source, and the journalist.

"Will we get fooled sometimes in doing this? Yes. But we're going to get fooled sometimes anyway. It's analogous to how scientists form their beliefs. They are skeptics, but they also—at some point when the evidence is sufficient—give their assent. Scientists deal with warrant, not 'proof.' They are what philosophers call 'fallibilists.' You give your belief to things that are well-sourced with evidence, while always holding out the possibility that if further evidence comes to light that contradicts your belief, you should give it up because you might be wrong."

Earlier, I had a chat with Lee about why so many people fall for conspiracy theories. We spoke specifically about Flat-earthers—people who believe that Earth is flat and that the idea of it being a planet is a hoax perpetrated at the highest possible institutional levels. Though some Flat-Earthers try to ‘prove’ their ideas to the general public, they don’t stand up to rigorous scientific analysis.

“They are to be commended for actually trying to test their hypothesis, but of course they don’t understand at all how science actually works. Specifically, they are ignorant of gravitational pull. One of their main arguments was that if the Earth was spinning the water would fall off. Do they not understand that gravitational pull comes from the center, is based on mass, and works on water too?” Lee told Bored Panda earlier.

He pointed out that after visiting the Flat Earth International Conference in 2018, he debated some conspiracy theorists and they kept asking for unspecific proof that they’re wrong. “Most of them just said ‘proof’ and I said ‘proof of what?’ They couldn’t be specific. This shows that their beliefs weren’t really based on evidence in the first place,” he said.

Lee explained to Bored Panda that after spending an hour face-to-face with Flat-Earthers, he came to the conclusion that the vast majority of them truly believe that the Earth is flat in their heart of hearts.

“Some are stronger in that belief than others, but I didn’t catch one person who seemed like they were just trolling. At one session I heard many Flat Earthers talk about losing family members, getting kicked out of their churches, losing jobs… who would do that for fun? These are hardcore science deniers,” Lee said.

“As hard as it might be to accept, there are people who believe this stuff and are willing even to put their lives on the line for it! One rocket guy crashed trying to prove Flat Earth. They aren’t pretending.”

Conspiracy theories are nothing new. They’ve been around far longer than most of us realize and they’re an indication that there’s chaos. “Conspiracy theories have been around since Nero in the Roman Empire. They pop up in times of turmoil or mass unrest when people try to make sense of the world, but can’t,” Lee said.