We know that repetition makes information feel more truthful (The Illusory Truth Effect). But how often do you need to repeat your core message before it sticks?
Research shows the biggest jump in perceived truth happens around the second time a statement is heard. After that, you see diminishing returns on the “truthiness,” though advertising data suggests brand positivity peaks around 10 exposures.
However, this effect has a shelf life. Belief decays over weeks and months. If a lead hears your message once and doesn’t encounter you again for six months, the trust signal fades.
In this micro-episode:
- Why you shouldn’t hammer the same point endlessly in a single episode
- The science of “Time Decay” and why it necessitates a regular publishing schedule
- Why saying the same thing in the same way builds more belief than varying your phrasing
Resources:
Episode on illusory truth effect (episode #26):
https://player.captivate.fm/episode/71ad2ea4-693f-419f-8282-4ed7da5bd61c/
Original 1977 study about repetition:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022537177800121
Overview and more studies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect
Making up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories
https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/456
Maximum attitude in advertising:
https://www.newneuromarketing.com/want-to-get-your-brand-on-top-of-mind-here-s-how-often-you-should-show-your-ad and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00913367.2015.1018460
Recogntition and recall in advertising:
https://asknigelhollis.com/blog/repetition-in-advertising-evokes-recognition-and-recall.html
Find more episodes and subscribe at stereoforest.com/minute.
Transcript
WEBVTT
::In a previous episode, number 26, we learned that repeating information makes somebody hearing it
perceive it as more truthful. And that's regardless of whether or not it even is the truth. So the next
question might very well be, how many times do you need to repeat that thing before people even believe it?
So this has been studied, understandably, in the advertising field, exposing people to information,
::over and over again. And the biggest jump in this perception of truthiness happens around the second time.
And after that, diminishing returns, basically. And advertising found that the peak sort of positivity
for a brand is around 10 times of mentioning that brand. So recall is a separate thing, although very
related to this. And I'll put links in the show notes if you want to know more. But this does impact your
content.
::strategy. So first of all, it means that you don't need to like hammer in the same point endlessly within a
single episode. You can mention your core concept a couple of times. It's much more effective than
repeating it more often in that episode. It also means that you can spread these repetitions across
multiple episodes. That does carry value. Your listener who encounters that core idea that you propose in
say episode 5 and then again in episode 12,
::experiences this effect between the episodes. And it also means consistency matters even more than
volume when it comes to this idea. So saying the same thing the same way it builds belief while saying sort of
adjacent things in different ways sort of dilutes this overall effect. So this is why some of my core
messages or pillars in this show remain about the same. I have four of them.
::such as one example and I have sort of beliefs and ideas that things that work for me within that and it's an
effective way for professionals that are putting together shows or content plans to sort of think about
presenting themselves online. So there's one more thing in this research that impacts how to approach our
shows and that's looking at the time decay. So this illusory truth effect is the strongest immediately
after
::someone hears that idea and it will persist although it will diminish over the following weeks and months
until it's just not really detectable as a strong signal anymore so if you do have regular content it
reinforces this belief so if someone only hears your core message one time and then doesn't encounter you
for months and months and months later that effect will fade it will wear out but if you remain sort of
consistent
::over time, on a monthly basis perhaps, that familiarity will drive this overall perception. So it's a
pretty good win for the podcast, a regular recurring podcast, to maintain this effect. I'm Jen DeHaan.
This is the Credibility Minute. You can find more episodes and get in touch with me at stereoforest.com
slash minute.