Whatever You Tell Them

When it comes to gullibility, a study by Cornell University researchers in 2014 found that “Most people will believe whatever you tell them, at least as long as a chart is involved.” What?? Well, when you think about it, that makes more sense than people know, and as technology gets better and better…especially AI, many people find it hard decipher what is real and what is fake. AI can even animate a photograph from the 1800s, but in 2014, all that AI wasn’t available. Still, people were taken in, by something as simple as a chart. If a speaker had a confident voice and a chart, it suddenly became believable.

The study at Cornell University came in the form of a series of three experiments. Researchers Aner Tal and Brian Wansink presented 174 study participants, most of whom had some college education, with various descriptions of a cold medicine. Among those shown a graphic alongside the text, 97 percent believed the medicine was effective. In contrast, only 68 percent of participants who saw the text without a graphic believed it worked. They say, seeing is believing, but when it comes to false information, we really need to beware.

But that’s not all the researchers discovered. People who claimed to “believe in science” were more likely to trust the cold medicine after seeing the chart. Charts aren’t the only marketing strategy around either. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, simply hearing that something is backed by science makes people more likely to believe it, whether that statement can be proven or not. For instance, when researchers included Florinef’s chemical formula in a description, “It’s carbon-oxygen-helium-and-fluorine based.” participants believed it would last two hours longer than when no formula was mentioned.

“Overall, the studies contribute to past research by demonstrating that even trivial elements can increase public persuasion, despite their not truly indicating scientific expertise or objective support,” the researchers wrote. Perhaps it’s time for all of us to use our minds, and work on being less gullible. We have all come to a point where we think that if it’s on the internet, it must be true, and that just isn’t necessarily so. It used to be that we demanded “truth in advertising” and held our media accountable for statements made to us. I’m all for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and we can’t afford to let them take these things away, but we as a people must make them accountable when they blatantly lie to is about a product, study, or story. When we do, they will be less likely to try to pull a “fast one” on us again. I don’t suppose we can take them to court exactly on these things, but we can “out them” on their own personal accountability, and maybe if we do that, they will get to a point where no one pays any attention to their lies. If we do that, we become the winners, not the blind masses. It is our responsibility to make sure that we aren’t fooled.