- Both groups were more likely to believe the corresponding claims about the celebrities compared to when the claims were not paired with non-probative information
- Therefore, it was the addition of non-probative semantic information itself, not just photos, that led to a truthiness effect

Results of Newman's Study Comparing Non-Probative Photos vs. Other Forms of Non-Probative Information

- Photos are believed to be inherently credible because they often do not know how to detect when a photo has been altered
- Newman et al. (2012) examined whether people would believe claims accompanied only by photos, or whether they would also believe claims accompanied by other forms of non-probative information
- One group of subjects received celebrity names paired with photos of the celebrities, while the other half received celebrity names were paired with a verbal description of the celebrity

Johns Hopkins University

- photos are inherently trustworthy
- people's judgments are swayed via a cognitive fluency mechanism, facilitating the semantic processing of a claim
- the inclusion of photos, despite being non-probative, creates an illusion of evidence

Possible reasons why non-probative photos sway people’s judgments:

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

Researcher Zhang asked participants to evaluate a claim while being exposed to either photos of the subject of the claim (which, in this case, was Betal or Shrimp) or photos of the referent (Leghorn or Rose). 

If the illusion of evidence is the reason for the truthiness effect, either photo should bias people to believe the claim as true. 

On the other hand, if the truthiness effect is due to the fluency perspective, photos of the subject should produce truthiness, whereas photos of the referent should produce falsiness. 

Zhang found that the latter results occurred, therefore providing no evidence for the illusion of evidence reasoning for the truthiness effect and more evidence for the fluency reasoning. 


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