Knowledge does not protect us against illusory truth [pdf]

apa.org

at the risk of invoking Godwin’s law, this effect has been observed in the past, e.g.

“...that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation…” - A. Hitler, “Mein Kampf” (paraphrased of course, and not including mention of the certain ethnic group to which he ascribed all faults of society)

This article backs these observations with research data. Although, the evidence is inconclusive when the subjects have domain knowledge, it clearly establishes that the knowledge base is not likely help when bombarded with repeated illusory general knowledge from a fluent source.

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