Fluency trumps working memory capacity in the truth effect

ABSTRACTThe truth effect, wherein repeated information gains perceived truthfulness, has been extensively studied in participants’ primary languages, showing robustness. However, individual differences in the truth effect due to working memory capacity (WMC) remain less explored. This study tested the truth effect and its relation to WMC amongst 130 young adults in Malaysia via Zoom. They were first exposed to 45 semantically meaningless statements (exposure phase). Then, participants completed a series of working memory tasks, including Backward Digit Span, Operation Span and Symmetry Span, before being exposed to the same 45 statements and 15 new statements. In the second exposure (rating phase), participants rated each statement on a 6-point Likert scale on its fluency and truth value. Results indicated fluency's significant association with the truth effect, consistent with prior research, while WMC showed no significant relationship. The truth effect persisted even when presented in a non-native language, highlighting its cross-linguistic significance.KEYWORDS: perceived truthworking memoryprocessing fluencynon-WEIRDcognitive bias Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Publication ethicsInformed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study. All procedures in the study were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of Human Research Ethics Committee USM (HREC). Study protocol number [20060303].AuthorshipChan Wai Mak, writing—original draft, data curation, formal analysis; Weng-Tink Chooi, methodology, supervision, writing—review & editing.All authors approved the final version of the article.Open dataThe data that support the findings of this study are openly available at Open Science Framework http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WU4JQ.Additional informationFundingThis research was supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia Short-Term Grant (304/PSOSIAL/6315579) to WENG-TINK CHOOI.