- 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

Johns Hopkins University

- 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

Evidence For Why Trust in Photos Can Produce 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. 

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