Do you believe that television and other media regularly lie to us and change our views? Could be. But there is even more bad news: our brains are working with them, too. It is very difficult for the brain to separate the enormous amount of information that comes every day, so it is ready to endure many misconceptions. Intelligent and well-educated people make more cognitive errors than less intelligent ones, however strange it may sound.
Bright Side has found out what psychological effects the media use to convince us of something or influence our decisions. You will eventually learn how to distinguish truth from lies.
Sleep Effect
Impact: A convincing message looks more accurate over time.
Imagine hearing information that seems appropriate to you. For example, you hear that chemicals that are dangerous to human health are used in the production of a famous confectionery brand. However, after a short while, you hear some information that doubts that this is true. For example, someone tells you that the source of information is not reliable or that the news is produced by a competitor. As a reasonable person, you will think that the original information is fake and you will try to forget it. But after a while (the so-called sleeper time), you will start thinking again, thinking that your first idea is correct. And you will never again buy products from this brand.
Frame Effect
Effect: By changing the sentence, you can change people’s perception.
The way an idea is expressed affects how we perceive it. By emphasizing the required part, you can make a person a hero or a villain. Let’s compare it: “3 of the 10 people remained hostage due to the slow movement of the police team.” On the other hand, “Thanks to their well-thought plans, the police team saved 7 of the 10 hostages.”
The point is that we evaluate some events not by themselves, but by their context. Usually this context (framework) determines our decision.
People are more likely to avoid loss rather than trying to gain something. Also with age, this effect becomes stronger: older people pay more attention to the negative aspects of everything and are more likely to avoid losses rather than trying and seeing the real advantages of a proposal.
Semmelweis Reflex
Impact: I only see what I want to see.
Our brain chooses only those that are compatible with our expectations and ideas. At the same time, he refuses to accept new information and new facts that contradict our stereotypes (Semmelweis reflex).
That’s why we prefer to watch the same TV and YouTube channels and go to the same websites. That’s why we believe in news programs so easily – because they follow our thoughts and are easy to digest. If you are confident that GMO is dangerous, you will easily believe even the most unprofessional article on this topic, and you will ignore articles with serious views of serious journals.
The same goes for our attitude towards people: People who constantly criticize often only pay attention to flaws and mistakes; admirers ignore even the most obvious mistakes.
Identifiable Victim Effect
Impact: “A person’s death is a tragedy, a million deaths is statistics.”
Thousands of people around the world are disappearing or dying, but we rarely hear it in the media. The story of a raped person becomes the most controversial topic in social media and press for months.
This happens because a message about a particular person is more convincing than statistical data. This feels like you know that person and makes you feel an emotional reaction. This affects not only the audience but also the government structures.
The story of baby Jessica, who fell into the well in 1987, was shown live. The little girl was rescued after the rescue team’s 58 hours of work. As a result, the amount of money donated was about $ 800,000. At the same time, 830,000 children die each year from accidental injuries, and most of these deaths are preventable. However, there is never enough money for measures.
Reference Effect
Effect: We take a picture of an event, cut a part of it and make the cut part as if it were the whole event.
This is a method in which only one side of an object or the other side of the event is accidentally or deliberately ignored. It prevents you from understanding what it really is and which decision you need to make.
For example, the advantages of a new chemical fertilizer are discussed, which allows us to harvest several times more in the media. But it is never said how the contents of manure and the fruits and vegetables that grow with it will affect the human body.
Third Party Effect
Impact: Everyone falls victim to propaganda, not me.
We tend to underestimate the power and impact of social media and exaggerate it when it comes to other people. In this way, we separate ourselves from other people and increase our self-confidence. This effect is very evident when a person receives negative information (on TV, on TV, when reading some racist or sexist articles).
Third party influence is directly related to attribution theory. We are more likely to justify our actions according to the situation, and when others do something wrong, it is because of bad people. (About ourselves: “I shouted not because I was angry with my child, but because it made me angry while pouring juice on the table.” About others, “A bad mother because the child can’t wear the hat correctly on her head.”)
Social Norm Interaction
Impact: We feel much closer to our favorite characters in talk shows.
When we watch TV shows, movies or cartoons, we interact with the characters as if we had a regular relationship with them. Obviously, in such a close “relationship” we cannot avoid taking over some of the behavioral aspects and their effects hunting us. This effect can be better understood when it comes to children and teens who create their own identity and try to imitate their favorite video game, movie and cartoon characters.
There is something known as the “Angelina Jolie” effect: The actress only talked about the mastectomy for 15 days. In 1987, when Princess Diana took off her gloves and shook hands with an HIV patient, thousands of people in the UK and the United States stopped believing that this virus could be touched. However, before this incident, scary articles in the media made 50% of Americans think it was a good idea to isolate these patients completely.
Extracting Facts from Lies
Most news programs begin with the introduction of a server saying “Good evening” and the news actually explains why it’s not a good evening. If you watch TV shows often enough, it will not allow you to rationally predict the pros and cons of ordinary situations. Instead, spend more time on your hobbies and communicate with your friends.
Try to be more critical when you see the news on social media. Social media is a place where fake news spread 6 times faster than real information. This is mostly the case for policy related news. And fake news is much more “durable” because it continues to circulate after a long time, even after it has been proven wrong.
Bonus: Flying Penguins
On April 1, the BBC edited a funny video that it claimed found a new species of penguin that could not fly but also migrate to the hot tropical islands. 6 million views and 21,000 likes proves very well that only fake information spreads at lightning speed.
Do you have your own methods to help you understand the difference between truth and lies? What news on social media or newspapers seem completely false or absurd to you?
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