Friday, August 10, 2012

Eric W. Dolan — Cognitive researchers find truth in Colbert’s ‘truthiness’

Scientists in New Zealand and Canada have found Stephen Colbert’s concept of “truthiness” isn’t just a late-night ruse to get laughs; the concept can also help explain how the human brain evaluates claims 

“We wanted to examine how the kinds of photos people see every day — the ones that decorate newspaper or TV headlines, for example — might produce ‘truthiness,’” the lead researcher, Eryn J. Newman of Victoria University of Wellington, explained. “We were really surprised by what we found.”
Colbert has explained that truthiness is “truth that comes from the gut, not books.” In their study, published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, the researchers used the term “truthiness effect” to refer to a category of phenomenon where things that don’t provide proof of a claim nevertheless caused people to shift toward believing that claim.
Raw Story
Cognitive researchers find truth in Colbert’s ‘truthiness’
Eric W. Dolan

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