- When the claims about commodities appeared next to a photo, participants were biased to believe the claims made about the commodities
- This was especially true when the claims about the commodity were positive claims about the future performance of the commodity (i.e. "that the commodity will make a profit")

Johns Hopkins University

Newman, Azad, Lindsay, and Garry (2018) made claims about various commodities (i.e. "Benzene") and asked participants to evaluate whether these claims were true or false.

Evidence for the Truthiness Effect: The Commodity Experiment

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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