The truthiness effect tends to be minimized in claims that can be easily evaluated by using people's own general knowledge. Additionally, research found that when claims that are negatively valenced (meaning the claim suggests something negative about its subject) are being assessed, the truthiness effect was either eliminated or reversed. However, there are limitations to this particular research finding.

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Due to the high influence of non-probative photos on whether individuals believe a certain claim to be true, an important investigation that needs to be raised is whether truthiness can be reduced at all. Factors to consider are: 

- The types of conditions that influence people's likelihood to become affected by truthiness.
-  Any individual differences related to becoming impacted by the truthiness effect.
- If informing people about the use of non-probative photos play any sort of role in susceptibility to the truthiness effect.



Reducing Truthiness

Newman, E. J., & Zhang, L. (2020). Truthiness: How non-probative photos shape belief. In R. Greifeneder, M. Jaffé, E. J. Newman, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), The psychology of fake news: Accepting, sharing, and correcting misinformation (pp. 90–114). London: Routledge. 

Truthiness: How non-probative photos shape belief

Conditions That Influence Susceptibility to Truthiness

Individuals who obtain higher scores on the Need For Cognition Scale (NFC) are less susceptible to the truthiness effect since they are less likely to use heuristics when determining if a claim is true. Conversely, those low in NFC are less likely to realize that photos paired with a claim are non-probative, which can lead them to believe that the claim is true using the truthiness effect. Age has also played a factor, and surprisingly, older people fall victim to truthiness less than their younger counterparts when judging more well-known claims. A possible explanation for this is because older adults have a more expansive knowledge network, but research has yet to prove this theory. 

Individual Differences That Influence Susceptibility to Truthiness

Although providing a warning to people about truth ahead of time can improve accuracy in differentiating between true and false claims, the truthiness effect itself is not reduced (the likeliness of perceiving claims paired with photos as true). Non-probative photos remain extremely influential in how people assess the veracity of information they are presented with, yet many are completely unaware of this.

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