The Illusory Truth Effect | How it Affects the Patient Journey

By: Kane Harrison | CEO

The Illusory Truth Effect is the tendency to believe information to be correct after repeated exposure.

In daily life, we frequently encounter false claims in the form of consumer advertisements, political propaganda, and rumors. Repetition is a major way that misconceptions enter our knowledge base. The phenomenon was first identified in a 1977 study at Villanova University and Temple University.  Incredibly, when truth is assessed, people rely on whether the information is in line with their understanding or if it feels familiar.

Just take a moment to think about that. Think about the things you have developed in your mind to be the truth only to discover it may not be. Our parents can be the biggest source of our first misconceptions, often warping the truth for our own good as toddlers. Did you know that eating a carrot will help you see better at night? Exactly.

Now to get ahead of you all, under certain conditions, eating carrots will help improve eyesight where undernourished people suffer from extreme vitamin A deficiencies, but our parents told us this so that WE WOULD EAT OUR CARROTS. 

For Example:

Me at 3 years old: 
“Why do I have to eat my carrots?” 

Mum: 
“Carrot’s will help you see better at night.”

Me at 4 years old:
“Why do I have to eat my carrots?”

Mum:
“Carrot’s will help you see better at night.”

Me at 5 years old:

“Why do I have to eat my carrots?”  

Mum: 
“Carrot’s will help you see better at night.”

And so on, until… me: “Yes, you eat carrots because they will help you see better at night.”  In fact, I now tell my 4 year old that carrots will help her see better at night. 

In 1951, L&M Filter Tip ad claimed, "L&M Filters are just what the doctor ordered," despite the fact that tobacco factory chemists knew that filters had no more effect in removing nicotine and tar from cigarettes than the same amount of tobacco. Tobacco companies hosted dinners at fancy restaurants for throat specialists where practitioners were encouraged to recommend cigarette brands to patients with coughs and other complaints. Furthermore, even after the 1964 Advisory Committee report, leading medical experts still testified in favor of the tobacco industry.

Excuse me… what?

That's right, all it takes is a trusted source, repetition and some time for your mind to create a story that you will consider to be true when you recount it.

We begin to imagine our own truth if the information is presented by a credible source and if it’s delivered with repetition. We create ‘stories’ to support the information and more often than not attach an emotion to it because it makes it easier to recall.  

Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful. The Illusory Truth Effect has also been linked to hindsight bias, in which the recollection of confidence is skewed after the truth has been received.

“You don’t use a blade for LASIK, that can’t be true, I heard you still use a blade.”

Researchers at McMaster University have discovered that familiarity can overpower rationality and that, repetitively hearing that a certain fact is wrong, can affect the hearer's beliefs. The Illusory Truth Effect plays a significant role in such fields as election campaigns, news media, political propaganda, religion and yes, most of all…. advertising.

Studies on the Illusory Truth Effect demonstrate that repeated statements are easier to process, and are subsequently perceived to be more truthful than new statements. The problem is the advertiser has known this for a long time and has used it to change the perception of a product and even the behavior of a generation. What makes the Illusory Truth Effect even more complicated (and sometimes dangerous) is that much of the information we keep in our knowledge base comes to mind relatively automatically, without the experience of reliving the original learning event.

When it comes to vision correction, most people have been considering a procedure for many years and have had (often generational) influences to guide their rationale. There has been over 30 years of technology development and the patients have been educated on the maybe the first 15 years (not the last, the first 15 years) of that movement. If you think about the rapid advancements in technology in just the last 5 years in IOLs, ICL’s, and preventative dry eye treatments, the patient is often quite literally in the dark when they enter your office.

Everyday we have patients ask us about dated technology, use of blades, extended recovery, down time, pain levels during surgery, the list goes on. Honestly, the majority of these questions would have been relevant 15 years ago, but are not today. Thankfully, we recognize where they are coming from. Usually someone else's experience many years ago.

There is no hiding the fact that the vision correction industry has done a horrible job at educating patients. The repercussions of a lack of patient education are a long tail of generationally recalled ‘stories’ that have been told by trusted sources (often family) and are repeated often (like any good story during the holidays), or is false source information from the web. This becomes the perfect storm for an Illusory Truth. So, please be mindful of your patients' experience and knowledge and don’t be dismissive of what is seemingly an irrational question or statement about the procedure. Together, it’s our role to guide, reassure, and educate the patient wherever needed about their vision.

Afterall, you may have a few Illusory Truth’s of your own. 

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