THINKER'S ALMANAC - June 3

How do you prepare a truth sandwich?

Subject:  The Illusory Truth Effect - Truth Sandwich

Event:  Birthday of psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky, 1958

It’s not just what people think that matters, but how they think.  -Stephan Lewandowsky

Today is the birthday of Australian psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky.  In 2020, working with his colleague John Cook, Lewandowsky published “The Debunking Handbook” which prescribes a strategic approach to combating misinformation.

                                                       Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

While it may seem like a logical approach, the typical “myth-busting” approach to debunking misinformation is not always effective.  As Lewandowsky explains, this is because it places too much emphasis on the misinformation and not enough emphasis on the facts.  The illusory truth effect is the phenomenon where we often judge something as true not because it is necessarily valid but because it is familiar and because we have heard it repeated numerous times.  As Lewandowsky says, “Our feelings of familiarity and truth are often linked.  We are more likely to believe things that we have heard many times than new information.” 

The recommended approach is a four layered truth sandwich.  

1. FACT:  Rather than giving the myth primacy, begin by starting with a fact, concrete evidence that will allow you to frame the evidence based on truth.  This will allow you to frame your argument rather than being at the mercy of someone else’s misinformation.  

2. WARN ABOUT THE MYTH:  State the myth, but do it only once.

3. EXPLAIN THE FALLACY:  Provide an explanation, a rebuttal, of why the myth is misleading.

4. FACT:  End by reinforcing and repeating the fact.  Make sure that the last thing that people have to process is the truth.

The “truth sandwich” is a rhetorical frame that allows you to control your message.  So, for example, if your goal is to debunk myths about vaccines, begin with the positive facts that highlight the success and safety of vaccines, before even mentioning the myth.  Then, identify the myth, but state it just once, before presenting a focused and clear rebuttal.  Juxtapose the myth with the correct information. Don’t just say the myth is false; instead, explain why it is wrong and why the alternative is correct.  Finally, finish with the facts.  Don’t worry about being redundant here; remember, the reason that misinformation is powerful is because it is repeated so often.  Therefore, the best way to counter it is to repeat the facts (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What is the illusory truth effect, and how does the truth sandwich combat it?

Challenge - A Recipe For Truth:  Select a piece of misinformation, and write a paragraph that rebuts the misinformation, following the Truth Sandwich recipe.

ALSO ON THIS DATE:

June 3, 2013: In Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. 435 (2013), the United States Supreme Court decided that a cheek swab of an arrestee's DNA is comparable to fingerprinting and therefore, a legal police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. -Fingerprint vs DNA analogy - See shortcut 54

June 3, 1888:  Today is the anniversary of the publication of one of the most popular of all American poems. Casey at the Bat was first published in the San Francisco Examiner by Ernest L. Thayer. 

Sources:

1-Cook, J. and Lewandowsky, S. (2020), The Debunking Handbook.