Scientists discover the truth behind Colbert's 'truthiness'

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/s-sdt080812.php

Public release date: 8-Aug-2012
Contact: Renate Bayaz
Springer
A picture inflates the perceived truth of true and false claims

Trusting research over their guts, scientists in New Zealand and Canada examined the phenomenon Stephen Colbert, comedian and news satirist, calls "truthiness"—the feeling that something is true. In four different experiments they discovered that people believe claims are true, regardless of whether they actually are true, when a decorative photograph appears alongside the claim. The work is published online in the Springer journal, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.