← all facts
fluency
Your brain confuses ease of processing with actual truth.
The fluency heuristic leads people to believe that information is true simply because it is easy to understand or recall.
If a statement is simple and flows well, your brain bypasses critical evaluation and accepts it as fact. You are more likely to trust a statement that feels comfortable than one that requires cognitive effort to process.
You are currently mistaking convenience for accuracy.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Reber and Schwarz, 1999, Journal of Experimental Psychology
- What the check found
- Reber and Schwarz (1999) established that perceptual fluency increases truth judgments. The terminology 'fluency heuristic' is widely recognized, though 'processing fluency' is the standard academic term.
- 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.