Repetition-Truth Effect
/A thought repeated many times becomes a belief.
Stop and think about that for a moment - every belief you have grew from you thinking the same thought over and over again.
We aren’t born with beliefs, we gain them over time.
Adults repeated things to us to teach us to talk. We heard the same thing repeated many times and eventually our brains recorded it so we knew it for ourselves. That is how beliefs are formed.
The neuroscience field of neuroplasticity has proven that the brain can be re-wired with repetition. And research has uncovered a phenomenon known as the Repetition-Truth Effect, also called the Illusory-Truth Effect.
The research is conclusive that we believe something the more we hear it repeated. Even when we don’t believe something the first time we hear it, the more we hear it, our brain begins to believe it. In a recent study published by the National Institutes of Health, they found that even if the statement is in fact not true, the more someone heard it, the more they believed it was true.
This is good news if you want to change your beliefs - just repeatedly think a new thought and it will eventually become a new belief.
This is concerning news if you consider messages in our society - how many of us believe something to be true because we have heard it repeated often?
If an influential adult in your life says the same thing to you multiple times, your brain registers it as true.
If I think the same critical thought about myself every day when I look in the mirror, my brain begins to see it as true.
If the news channel we choose repeats the same message every day, our brains believe it to be true.
If our social media feeds align with a certain way of thinking and every post seems to agree, our brains will feel this is truth.
So, what do we do with this Repetition-Truth Effect phenomenon?
We have awareness that our beliefs were formed from repeated thoughts. We consider how our thinking and the thinking of those around us influenced our beliefs. We realize we have the power to change our beliefs if we choose to. We understand that the reason people believe things we can’t imagine is because they have heard it repeated many times. We have compassion for others because we understand they were subject to the influences around them. Then we choose wisely what we put into our own brains knowing this phenomenon exists.
What do you want to believe? Repeat that thought often to yourself, and you will.
More loving thoughts, more loving beliefs - about yourself and everyone else too.
Let’s use this power to radiate more love,