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communication
You trust a statement more if it rhymes.
The rhyme-as-reason effect makes you perceive rhyming phrases as more truthful than identical statements written in prose.
Rhyming increases processing fluency, which your brain misinterprets as credibility. Because the information is easier to retrieve and mentally rehearse, you assume the underlying content must be accurate. It is a shortcut for assessing validity.
Truth and catchiness are easily confused.
Where this comes from
- Study
- McGlone and Tofighbakhsh, 2000
- What the check found
- McGlone and Tofighbakhsh (2000) 'Birds of a feather flock conjointly: Rhyme as (reason in) aphorisms' is the correct seminal study supporting this effect.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.