Trivial elements such as graphs or formulas can lead consumers to believe products are more effective, according to a new study.
"Anything that looks scientific can make information you read a lot more convincing," said the study's lead author Aner Tal, from Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab.
"The scientific halo of graphs, formulas, and other trivial elements that look scientific may lead to misplaced belief," said Tal.
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In one study, Tal and co-author Brian Wansink, recruited 61 individuals to read information about a new medication.
Half of the participants read a paragraph about the medication and the other half read the same paragraph with an accompanying graph.
The graph did not provide any new information. Afterwards participants were asked: "Does the medication really reduce illness?"
Graphs helped convince almost all of the participants that the medication worked: 96.6 per cent of those who saw the graph believed that the medication would effectively reduce illness, whereas only 67.7 per cent of those who saw only the text believed that that it would reduce illness.
Two additional studies supported the researchers' hypotheses that individuals are influenced by "scientific looking" elements not because they help with understanding or information retention, but because "scientific looking" information is perceived as true.
In the second study 56 participants were presented with either the paragraph and graph from the first study or just with the paragraph with an added sentence repeating that the medication reduced illness by 20 per cent.
Afterwards all participants were asked to estimate how much the medication reduced illness and their level of agreement with the statement: "I believe in science."
Retention of information was the same for both groups - graphs did not appear to increase their understanding of the information or their recall of the percentage by which it reduced illness.
Those who indicated a belief in science and who were shown the graph expressed the strongest confidence in the effectiveness of the medication.
This shows that belief in science can make individuals more likely to be persuaded by trivial, "scientific looking" graphs.
"A general faith in science may lead people to believe things that just look scientific, but aren't," said Tal.
The study was published in the journal Public Understanding of Science.
