Illusory Truth Effect?

This is a new term for me, and it supposedly explains why there are those who love Trump.

Opinion: The psychological reasons why Trump supporters believe his lies

Not getting this at all yet.

Repeat a lie enough and people will start believing it.

Mestemia said:

Repeat a lie enough and people will start believing it.

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Be interesting if the truth were that simple.

Mestemia said:

Repeat a lie enough and people will start believing it.

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Hitler knew this well.

Ellen Brown said:

Hitler knew this well.

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Speaking of Hitler, I notice that many people will leap to belief in any attractive
factoid offered. This is true not just of Trump fans, but also his detractors. Not
too long ago, many posters here were alarmed that he could be the next Hitler.
Even leftish media were pushing Trump as Hitler, eg, NPR (a main news source
for the left). The argument was based upon weak parallels, eg, inflammatory speech.
We see no one walking back on these claims, despite there being no pogroms, gas
chambers, death camps, blitzkriegs, etc.

People also tend to think that problems with rational thought afflict only the
other side. I recently tried an experiment....
I asked some anti-Trumpers if there were anything positive that he's done.
Those answering admitted to nothing. I asked about the First Step Act (criminal
justice reform). None admitted that it was positive, despite its being progressive.
It shows an entrenched predisposition to an all or nothing love or hate relationship
with politicians. And this affects judgment of policies...it's based more on tribal
membership than on personal values.

Humans are a mess....on both sides of the aisle. I recently saw a thread wherein
Trump's detractors repeatedly called him epithets like "idiot", "fool", etc. Each
poster fed on what the others said....an echo chamber. How could they then be
objective about a policy of his?
We owe it to ourselves to actively allow for merit in something the opposition has
done, & failure when one on our side has done wrong. Force oneself to see
both sides of an argument.

Trump lies so much that whenever he opens his mouth we should just assume he is telling lies and he only has himself to blame, as he told lie after lie after lie after lie. . . I have never seen someone that lies so much.

WalterTrull said:

Be interesting if the truth were that simple.

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But this isn't a statement about truth. It's a statement about psychology. I think it's been well accepted for decades.

Revoltingest said:

Speaking of Hitler, I notice that many people will leap to belief in any attractive
factoid offered. This is true not just of Trump fans, but also his detractors. Not
too long ago, many posters here were alarmed that he could be the next Hitler.
Even leftish media were pushing Trump as Hitler, eg, NPR (a main news source
for the left). The argument was based upon weak parallels, eg, inflammatory speech.
We see no one walking back on these claims, despite there being no pogroms, gas
chambers, death camps, blitzkriegs, etc.

Click to expand...

We need not wait for the full flower of Fascsism to see what's sprouted, particularly since the mechanisms of totalitarianism are now pretty well known, from numerous historical and experimental examples.
The parallels aren't that weak:
Time to pull out again: The 14 Points of Fascism
Fascism develops slowly, unnoticed, by baby steps:
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, an excerpt, 2017 edition

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

It shows an entrenched predisposition to an all or nothing love or hate relationship
with politicians. And this affects judgment of policies...it's based more on tribal
membership than on personal values.

Click to expand...

I agree. We all use mental short-cuts and form opinions without sufficient critical analysis. But I'll bet the percentage of people who jump to unjustified conclusions is greater among those with a high RWA index (Altemeyer). A certain portion of the population prefers simple, "commonsense," black-and-white explanations, and the majority of these are on the Right.
Fact finding, shades of grey and critical analysis are much more common on the Left.

The fact is, authoritarianism is rapidly increasing ( The Right-Wing Authoritarian Threat to Europe | Atlas Network ) while Democracy is decreasing in the world: The uncertain future of democracy

We owe it to ourselves to actively allow for merit in something the opposition has
done, & failure when one on our side has done wrong. Force oneself to see
both sides of an argument.

Click to expand...

Hear, hear!

Valjean said:

But this isn't a statement about truth. It's a statement about psychology. I think it's been well accepted for decades.
We need not wait for the full flower of Fascsism to see what's sprouted, particularly since the mechanisms of totalitarianism are now pretty well known, from numerous historical and experimental examples.
The parallels aren't that weak:
Time to pull out again: The 14 Points of Fascism
Fascism develops slowly, unnoticed, by baby steps:
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, an excerpt, 2017 edition

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.
I agree. We all use mental short-cuts and form opinions without sufficient critical analysis. But I'll bet the percentage of people who jump to unjustified conclusions is greater among those with a high RWA index (Altemeyer). A certain portion of the population prefers simple, "commonsense," black-and-white explanations, and the majority of these are on the Right.
Fact finding, shades of grey and critical analysis are much more common on the Left.

The fact is, authoritarianism is rapidly increasing ( The Right-Wing Authoritarian Threat to Europe | Atlas Network ) while Democracy is decreasing in the world: The uncertain future of democracy
Hear, hear!

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Fascism is always a threat lurking in government.
Is Trump a greater threat than recent Presidents?
Bill Clinton has the worst civil liberties record.
As long as our system of checks & balances remains
in place, we'll survive Trump, just as we did the others.