--- title: Repetition and the illusory truth effect url: https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/ description: Repetition makes a claim feel true through familiarity. Hasher 1977, Fazio 2015, and slogans from Der Stürmer to Back the Attack and the £350m bus. section: Techniques --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an intelligence briefing room with case files and behavioral-analysis notes on a chalkboard.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-learn.jpg) Techniques · Classical # Repetition and the illusory truth effect 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Techniques](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/) 3. Repetition and the illusory truth effect In brief Repetition is a propaganda technique that repeats a claim or slogan until familiarity is mistaken for truth; the tell is the same phrase across channels and months with no new evidence added between repetitions, unlike repeating a well-documented finding to keep it in public memory. ![Illustration: a loudspeaker and rows of identical posters that darken toward the right, the last column in red.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/technique-cards/repetition.jpg) Illustration, not an archive object On this page - [History and effect of Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#history-and-effect-of-repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda) - [How Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda works](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#how-repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda-works) - [Why Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda works](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#why-repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda-works) - [Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda examples across eras and sides](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda-examples-across-eras-and-sides) - [How to spot Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#how-to-spot-repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda) - [Where Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda ends: edge cases and legitimate persuasion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#where-repetition-and-the-illusory-truth-effect-propaganda-ends-edge-cases-and-legitimate-persuasion) - [Sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#sources) - [The science](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/#the-science) Related techniques [Firehosing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/firehosing/) [Sleeper effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/sleeper-effect/) [Big lie](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/big-lie/) [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) [Overton window shifting](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/overton-shift/) Also called Illusory truth effect, Truth effect, Slogan repetition, Say it again Repeat a claim until familiarity is mistaken for truth. ## How to spot Repetition and the illusory truth effect: the tell The same phrase across channels and months, with no new evidence added between repetitions. ## What Repetition and the illusory truth effect is not Repeating a well-documented finding to keep it in public memory. On this page ## History and effect of Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda Advertisers, preachers and politicians used repetition long before psychologists measured it. Wartime posters and party slogans rest on one expectation: a message met again and again will be remembered, and a remembered message will feel familiar. Explain moreShow less Psychology added the finding that the familiar feels true. Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein and Thomas Toppino reported this in 1977 and called it the illusory truth effect. Repetition does not change the claim. It changes how easily the claim is processed, and that ease is read as a sign that the claim is correct. The emotional effect is a quiet one: the repeated claim stops feeling like an argument and starts feeling like background knowledge. Lineage: Hasher, Goldstein and Toppino (1977); slogan tradition ## How Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda works The technique needs three things: a short claim, many occasions to hear it and no pause for checking. Short claims travel best. Slogans, numbers and nicknames can be repeated word for word, which makes them easy to carry from one channel to the next. Explain moreShow less The occasions are spread over time and channels: a poster on the street, the same line on the radio, the same line from a neighbour. Each repetition is cheap and each is counted as a separate encounter even when it comes from one source. A campaign therefore buys familiarity with volume, not with evidence. The third element is the lack of a check. Repetition works best when the audience is busy, uncertain or already inclined to accept the claim, and when the message offers an answer to a worry. It does not need to be believed on first hearing. Adolf Hitler described the method as doctrine in *Mein Kampf*: "all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans" (vol. 1, ch. 6, in the English translation reproduced by alphahistory.com). Whether or not a given regime read him, many propaganda systems of the twentieth century followed the same rule, as the next sections show. ## Why Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda works Hasher and colleagues asked participants to rate how likely it was that plausible but obscure statements were true. Some statements appeared in all three sessions, held two weeks apart, and others appeared once. Ratings of repeated statements rose from session to session, while ratings of new ones did not. ![Illustration: a microfilm reader and card-catalogue drawers with film strips and index cards.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/graphics/microfilm-archive.jpg) Illustration, not an archive object Explain moreShow less Lisa Fazio, Nadia Brashier, B. Keith Payne and Elizabeth Marsh (2015) tested whether knowing the answer protects people. Participants rated statements that contradicted facts they had been shown to know, such as a claim that the short pleated skirt worn by Scots is called a sari instead of a kilt. Repetition still raised the rated truth of false statements, even for people who knew the right answer. The authors call this "knowledge neglect": when a statement feels fluent, people often do not consult what they know. Alice Dechêne and colleagues' meta-analysis (2010) pooled 51 studies and found a reliable effect, interpreted through processing fluency. The effect is moderate in size, applies to true statements as well as false ones, keeps growing with more repetitions at a decreasing rate (Hassan and Barber, 2021), and appeared for fake-news headlines after a single earlier exposure (Pennycook, Cannon and Rand, 2018). Most experiments use trivia statements, so the size of the effect for entrenched political beliefs is not known. See [Illusory truth effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/illusory-truth-effect/) in the Learn library for the full review. ## Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda examples across eras and sides - **Der Stürmer (1927-1945, Germany, Julius Streicher's weekly).** The paper printed the line "Die Juden sind unser Unglück" ("The Jews are our misfortune") at the foot of its front page, issue after issue, and the weekly was shown in public display cases with its slogans (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Julius Streicher: Biography"). The slogan was not argued for. The display case in Worms in August 1935 put it in front of passers-by who stopped to read it together. The content is antisemitic; it is shown as it was. - **The 1934 plebiscite (March 1934, Fascist Italy, Partito Nazionale Fascista).** For the single-list plebiscite the Fascist Federation of Rome covered the facade of Palazzo Braschi with rows of the word "SI" around a giant face of Mussolini. Only one answer was offered, and it was repeated scores of times on one wall. - **War-bond campaigns (1941-1944, United States, Treasury War Finance Division).** The Treasury ran "Back the Attack" through typographic posters (1941), the Third War Loan of September 1943 and a 1944 bookmark. The phrase asks for no more than the purchase of a bond, and it does not describe any particular benefit. Repetition is the legitimate end of the spectrum, since the Treasury was asking for a lawful, openly attributed act, but the method is the same as the others here: one phrase, many surfaces. Show all 7Show fewer - **Rooftop and roadside slogans (1975 Soviet Union; 2014 North Korea).** In a photograph of Moscow in 1975, letters on an apartment roof read "Long live the Communist Party of the Soviet Union!" (Fortepan). In a Pyongyang photograph from 2014, three roadside murals carry slogans, one of them "Long live the great victory of Songun politics!" Neither slogan makes a testable claim; their effect depends on being seen daily by the same people. - **The £350 million bus (2016, United Kingdom, Vote Leave).** The Leave campaign repeated a figure of £350 million a week sent to the EU on a campaign bus and in its messaging. The UK Statistics Authority said the figure was misleading, and Boris Johnson repeated it in 2017 (Office for National Statistics; Huffington Post UK, September 2017). An Ipsos MORI poll in June 2016 found 78 percent of respondents had heard the claim and 47 percent thought it true. - **Claims of a stolen election (2020 onward, United States).** Claims that fraud changed the 2020 presidential result were repeated by the defeated candidate and allies across speeches, broadcasts and social media for months. Dozens of lawsuits making them were rejected, and the House January 6 Select Committee's final report (2022) found the claims false. - **"Hands up, don't shoot" (2014 onward, United States).** After a Ferguson, Missouri police officer shot Michael Brown on 9 August 2014, the account that Brown had his hands raised in surrender when he was shot was repeated at protests, in news coverage and by members of Congress on the House floor in December 2014. The Justice Department's report of 4 March 2015 found that this account was not supported by the physical and forensic evidence or by credible witness statements. The phrase stayed in use as a protest slogan about policing more broadly (St. Louis Public Radio, 24 March 2015). ![Men reading a Der Stürmer display case under the slogan Die Juden sind unser Unglück, Worms, 1935](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stuermerkasten-worms-1935.jpg) ![Facade of Palazzo Braschi in Rome covered in rows of SI around a large face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/palazzo-braschi-si-1934.png) ![U.S. Treasury war-bond poster: Back the attack! The 3rd War Loan is on](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/back-the-attack-3rd-war-loan-is-on-1943.jpg) ![Red, white and blue bookmark reading Back the Attack! Buy EXTRA War Bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/back-the-attack-buy-extra-war-bonds-bookmark-1944.jpg) ![Rooftop letters on a Moscow apartment building reading Long live the Communist Party of the Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/moscow-kpss-rooftop-slogan-1975.jpg) Explain moreShow less *Display case ("Stürmerkasten") of the weekly Der Stürmer, headed "Mit dem Stürmer gegen Juda" with the slogan "Die Juden sind unser Unglück," Worms, August 1935. Bundesarchiv, Bild 133-075; photographer not recorded. CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.* *Palazzo Braschi, Rome, dressed for the March 1934 plebiscite, with rows of the word SI around a face of Mussolini. Fascist Federation of Rome; photographer unknown. Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (PD-Italy; PD-URAA).* *"Back the attack! The 3rd War Loan is on! Buy bonds here," U.S. Treasury Department, War Finance Division, 1943. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-450 (NAID 513919). Public domain (U.S. government work).* *"Back the Attack! Buy EXTRA War Bonds" bookmark, U.S. Treasury Department, War Finance Division, 1944. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-446 (NAID 513915). Public domain (U.S. government work).* *Rooftop slogan "Да здравствует Коммунистическая партия Советского Союза!", Taras Shevchenko Embankment, Moscow, 1975. Fortepan / Urbán Tamás, ID 89340. CC BY-SA 3.0 (covers the photograph only).* ## How to spot Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda - Count the occasions and the channels, then ask what changed between the first and the last. If only the volume changed, the claim is unproven. - Look for a claim that appears in near-identical words in many places. Genuine independent observers rarely use the same phrase. - Ask whether the repeated claim has been tested. A claim that survived investigation can be repeated; a claim that failed it and is repeated unchanged shows the technique. Show all 6Show fewer - Notice your own sense of familiarity. "I have heard this" is not a reason to think it is true. - Check whether the message answers questions or avoids them. Slogans seldom come with a source. - Ask where you first heard it. Claims that lost their source are the territory of the [Sleeper effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/sleeper-effect/). ## Where Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda ends: edge cases and legitimate persuasion 5 items · Repeating a well-documented finding is not the tell. Public health messaging, safety… - Repeating a well-documented finding is not the tell. Public health messaging, safety notices and corrections repeat on purpose, and they cite their evidence each time. The test in "The tell" is whether anything new, such as evidence, has been added or answered. - Corrections are subject to the same effect. Repeating a false claim while correcting it can raise its familiarity, which is why careful corrections lead with the fact and mention the myth once ([Continued influence effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/continued-influence-effect/)). - A slogan for a lawful, openly attributed cause is ordinary advertising or advocacy. Its repetition is not deception, though it is not an argument either. - High-volume campaigns of many different claims, many of them contradictory, aim at exhaustion rather than belief in any one: see [Firehosing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/firehosing/). - Repetition combined with an enormous accusation is the pattern many readers mean by the "big lie" ([Big lie](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/big-lie/)). Sources and further reading ## Sources 14 items · Dechêne, Alice, Christoph Stahl, Jochim Hansen and Michaela Wänke. "The Truth About the… - Dechêne, Alice, Christoph Stahl, Jochim Hansen and Michaela Wänke. "The Truth About the Truth: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Truth Effect." *Personality and Social Psychology Review* 14(2), 2010, pp. 238-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352251 - Fazio, Lisa K., Nadia M. Brashier, B. Keith Payne and Elizabeth J. Marsh. "Knowledge Does Not Protect Against Illusory Truth." *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General* 144(5), 2015, pp. 993-1002. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000098 - Hasher, Lynn, David Goldstein and Thomas Toppino. "Frequency and the Conference of Referential Validity." *Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior* 16(1), 1977, pp. 107-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(77)80012-1 - Hassan, Aumyo, and Sarah J. Barber. "The Effects of Repetition Frequency on the Illusory Truth Effect." *Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications* 6, 2021, article 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00301-5 - Hitler, Adolf. *Mein Kampf*, vol. 1, ch. 6, 1925. Passage as reproduced at "Hitler on propaganda (1924)," Alpha History, https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/hitler-on-propaganda-1924/ (English translation, translator not stated there). - Ipsos MORI. "Immigration is now the top issue for voters in the EU referendum." 16 June 2016. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/immigration-now-top-issue-voters-eu-referendum - Office for National Statistics. "Leave campaign claims during Brexit debate" (freedom of information release). https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/leavecampaignclaimsduringbrexitdebate - Huffington Post UK. "Boris Johnson guilty of a 'clear misuse of statistics' over £350m claim." September 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-350-million-brexit_uk_59be7e51e4b02da0e142a246 - Pennycook, Gordon, Tyrone D. Cannon and David G. Rand. "Prior Exposure Increases Perceived Accuracy of Fake News." *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General* 147(12), 2018, pp. 1865-1880. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000465 - U.S. Department of Justice. *Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson.* 4 March 2015. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf - St. Louis Public Radio. "Why did the Justice Department conclude that 'hands up, don't shoot' was a myth?" 24 March 2015. https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2015-03-24/why-did-the-justice-department-conclude-that-hands-up-dont-shoot-was-a-myth - Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. *Final Report*, H. Rept. 117-663. U.S. House of Representatives, 2022. - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Julius Streicher: Biography." *Holocaust Encyclopedia*. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/julius-streicher-biography - Fortepan. Photograph ID 89340 (Urbán Tamás), Moscow, 1975. https://fortepan.hu/en/photos/?id=89340 **Gaps.** No sourced account of how often the North Korean and Soviet slogans were changed or repainted has been found, so those two cases rest on the photographs and the archive captions. The effect sizes in the research cited are for short trivia statements and headlines, not for entrenched political beliefs. ## The science Research on the psychology this technique relies on, from the Learn library: Research on the psychology this technique relies on, from the [Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/) library: - [Illusory truth effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/illusory-truth-effect/) — Illusory truth effect - [Continued influence effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/continued-influence-effect/) — Continued influence effect - [Availability heuristic](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/availability-heuristic/) — Availability heuristic - [Social proof](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/social-proof/) — Social proof ## Repetition and the illusory truth effect propaganda examples in the collection [All 10 repetition and the illusory truth effect examples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/technique/repetition/) - [Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palazzo-braschi-si-1934/) (Fascist Italy · Mar 1934 · Identity fusion, Bandwagon, Repetition and the illusory truth effect, Demagoguery) - [Mit dem Stürmer gegen Juda (Der Stürmer display case, Worms)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stuermerkasten-worms-1935/) (Nazi Germany · Aug 1935 · Scapegoating, Repetition and the illusory truth effect, Big lie). Content note: Anti-Jewish display case: banners 'Mit dem Stürmer gegen Juda' and 'Die Juden sind unser Unglück' with a caricature, shown whole. - [Back the attack with war bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/back-the-attack-with-war-bonds-typographic-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Glittering generalities, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - [Back the Attack: Buy an Extra $100 War Bond, 3rd War Loan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/back-the-attack-buy-extra-100-war-bond-3rd-war-loan-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Plain folks, Transfer, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - [Back the attack! Buy war bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/back-the-attack-buy-war-bonds-schreiber-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Transfer, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - [Back the Attack! Buy extra war bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/back-the-attack-buy-extra-war-bonds-bookmark-1944/) (United States · 1944 · Glittering generalities, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - [Hillside slogans for Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, across the Yalu from Supung (photographed 2009)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hillside-slogans-kim-il-sung-kim-jong-il-supung-2009/) (North Korea · May 12, 2009 · Glittering generalities, Identity fusion, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - [Three roadside murals: "Long live the great victory of Songun politics!" and two companion slogans, Pyongyang (photographed 2014)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dprk-three-murals-songun-victory-pyongyang-2014/) (North Korea · Jun 23, 2014 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon, Repetition and the illusory truth effect) ## Propaganda techniques related to Repetition and the illusory truth effect [Firehosing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/firehosing/) [Sleeper effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/sleeper-effect/) [Big lie](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/big-lie/) [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) [Overton window shifting](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/overton-shift/)