The repetition-induced truth effect: A critical note on the familiarity hypothesis

In our media environment (news channels; website [re]visits; social networks), there is a high probability of being repeatedly exposed to the same piece of information, whether it is true or not. The “truth effect,” which refers to the tendency to judge repeated factual statements to be truer than new statements, can have direct implications on the adherence to erroneous beliefs. In this paper, we discuss the mechanisms underlying the truth effect through a review of the main results. The dominant current explanation of the effect of repetition on the judgment of truth is the familiarity/fluency hypothesis, and the possible role of recollection has been underestimated in light of the available results. We propose a dual correspondence hypothesis, according to which both target recollection and familiarity mediate the effect caused by repetition, and we suggest potential research avenues to better understand this effect.