Norbert Schwarz, a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Southern California, will be join the University of Washington‘s Center for an Informed Public on Tuesday, November 2 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. PDT for an Invited Speaker Series discussion, “Of beauty and truth: A fluency perspective on misinformation and aesthetic appeal.”
Schwarz’s research explores how people make sense of the world in which they live and how their decisions are shaped by subtle contextual influences. His theoretical approach emphasizes the socially situated and embodied nature of cognition and the role of feelings and subjective experiences in judgment and decision making. He pursues these basic processes in different domains, including public opinion, consumer behavior, well-being, and the psychology of self-report.
This free, virtual event will be hosted via Zoom and is open to the public but registration is required. A Zoom link will be sent out to registrants approximately 90 minutes ahead of the start of the event.
Questions? Email uwcip@uw.edu.
Abstract
From poets who equate beauty and truth to scientists who prefer theories of elegant simplicity over complicated ones, beauty and truth are often seen as closely related. I propose that this is the case because the metacognitive experience of processing fluency informs intuitions of truth as well as beauty. Fluent processing is experienced as hedonically pleasing, which enhances the aesthetic appeal of fluently processed material. All variables that have been identified as beauty enhancing in empirical aesthetics exert their influence by facilitating fluent processing (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004). The same variables also increase the perceived truthfulness of a claim. Evaluations of truth are dominated by five criteria: Is it compatible with other things I believe? Is it internally consistent? Does it tell a plausible story? Does it come from a credible source? Are there many supporting arguments? Do others think so as well? Each criterion can be evaluated by drawing on relevant details (an effortful analytic strategy) or by attending to the ease with which the content can be processed (a less effortful intuitive strategy). Importantly, processing is easier when the respective criterion has been met – we stumble when we read material that contradicts our knowledge, are slower at understanding incoherent claims, and so on. This makes fluency an ecologically valid correlate of rational truth criteria. But people are insensitive to why something is fluent or disfluent and misread incidental variations in fluency as bearing on the criterion they consider (for a recent review, see Schwarz & Jalbert, 2021). As a result, a wide range of fluency manipulations – from color contrast to semantic primes and repetition—exerts parallel effects on judgments of truth and beauty. Moreover, material that is aesthetically appealing is more likely to be considered true. I review select experiments from these lines of work and discuss their implications for the correction of misinformation.
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 364-382.
Schwarz, N. & Jalbert, M. C. (2021). When fake news feels true. Intuitions of truth and the acceptance and correction of misinformation. In R. Greifeneder, M. Jaffé, E.J. Newman, & N. Schwarz, N. (Eds.), The psychology of fake news: Accepting, sharing, and correcting misinformation (pp. 73-90). London, UK: Routledge.
Schwarz, N., Jalbert, M.C., Noah, T., & Zhang, L. (2021). Metacognitive experiences as information: Fluency in consumer judgment and decision making. Consumer Psychology Review, 4(1), 4-25.