Explaining away the illusion of consensus.
Consensus among sources often signals a claim's trustworthiness. However, when all sources simply echo information from a single origin, an "illusion of consensus" can arise, leading individuals to feel equally convinced by a dependent consensus (a single, repeatedly cited source) as by an independe...
| Publicado en: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 1667 - 1688 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Jul2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195652883&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195652883 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 54 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 195652883 10.3758/s13421-025-01831-9 ppf: 1667 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: Explaining away the illusion of consensus. aug: au: Connor Desai, Saoirse Fai, Jacqueline Lee, Jaimie Hayes, Brett K. affil: https://ror.org/03f0f6041 School of Clinical and Health Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, Australia https://ror.org/03r8z3t63 University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia su: Consensus (Social sciences) Social media Task performance Social perception Confidence Decision making Public opinion Judgment (Psychology) Practical politics Psychological tests Cognition Research funding Persuasion (Rhetoric) Probability theory Descriptive statistics Experimental design Causality (Physics) Statistics Data analysis software sug: subj: Consensus (Social sciences) Social media Task performance Social perception Confidence Decision making Public opinion Judgment (Psychology) Practical politics Psychological tests Cognition Research funding Persuasion (Rhetoric) Probability theory Descriptive statistics Experimental design Causality (Physics) Statistics Data analysis software keyword: Consensus Credibility Explanation Judgment Reasoning Repetition Consensus Credibility Explanation Judgment Reasoning Repetition ab: Consensus among sources often signals a claim's trustworthiness. However, when all sources simply echo information from a single origin, an "illusion of consensus" can arise, leading individuals to feel equally convinced by a dependent consensus (a single, repeatedly cited source) as by an independent consensus (corroborated information from multiple sources). This effect may occur because repetition can be perceived as a cue for credibility. We conducted four experiments to test whether a negative explanation (e.g., repetition was intended to sway opinion) or a positive explanation (repetition occurred because a source was especially reliable) for repetition of a claim could reduce or enhance the illusion of consensus. Participants engaged in a political poll-reporting task to assess confidence in claims supported by an independent consensus (news outlets citing different polling companies), a dependent consensus without explanation (news outlets citing the same polling company), or a dependent consensus accompanied by explanations intended to either boost or undermine source credibility. Independent consensus was more persuasive than dependent consensus. However, the persuasiveness of dependent consensus was increased or decreased, respectively, by positive or negative explanations for repetition. These effects were found when the explanations were supplied by the experimenter (Experiments 1-2a, 2b) and when participants generated their own explanations (Experiments 3, 4). These findings suggest that social inference processes contribute to the illusion of consensus, with implications for interventions designed to mitigate the impact of misleading claims repeated in media. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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