46 What is the purpose of the passage?
(A) To entertain the readers.
(B) To inform the readers.
(C) To mislead the readers.
(D) To criticize the readers.

The marketing term “effective frequency” refers to the idea that a consumer has to see or hear an ad a number of times before its message hits home. 

行銷術語「有效頻率」是指消費者必須多次看到或聽到廣告才能理解其訊息。

Essentially, the more you say something, the more it sticks in－and possibly on－people’s heads. 

從本質上講，你說得越多，人們就越容易記住它，甚至可能記住得越多。

It doesn’t even have to be true－and that’s the problem. 

它甚至不必是真的——這就是問題所在。

What advertisers call “effective frequency,”psychologists call the “illusory truth effect”: the more you hear something, the easier it is for your brain to process, which makes it feel true, regardless of its basis in fact.

廣告商所說的“有效頻率”，心理學家稱之為“虛幻真相效應”：你聽到的東西越多，你的大腦就越容易處理，這會讓你覺得它是真的，而不管它的事實依據是什麼。

       “Each time, it takes fewer resources to understand,” says Lisa Fazio, a psychology professor at VanderbiltUniversity. “That ease of processing gives it the weight of a gut feeling.” That feeling of truth allows misconceptions to sneak into our knowledge base, where they masquerade as facts. 

范德堡大學心理學教授麗莎·法齊奧說：「每次，我們只需要更少的資源就能理解。」 「這種易於處理的特性讓它具有直覺的分量。」這種對真實的感覺使得誤解潛入我們的知識庫，並偽裝成事實。

One example Fazio and her research team give is the belief that vitamin C can prevent colds, which many people have taken as a fact but is actually a misconception simply because it is long repeated.

法齊奧和她的研究團隊給出的一個例子是，人們相信維生素 C 可以預防感冒，許多人將其視為事實，但實際上這是誤解，因為這種觀念被長期重複。

        Even in the absence of endless repetition, we’re more likely to believe what we hear than to question it objectively,thanks to another psychological principle: confirmation bias.

即使沒有無止盡的重複，我們也更有可能相信我們所聽到的內容，而不是客觀地質疑它，這要歸功於另一個心理學原理：確認偏誤。

        “In general, human beings, after hearing any claim, behave like naive scientists and tend to look for information that confirms the initial conjecture,” says Ajay Kalra, a marketing professor at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.“In an interesting experiment, a group of consumers was told a leather jacket, Brand A, was very good. When they later examined several brands, they tended to spend more time looking at Brand A and evaluating it more highly than other brands.”

「一般來說，人類在聽到任何說法後，都會像天真的科學家一樣，傾向於尋找能夠證實最初猜測的信息，」萊斯大學瓊斯商學院市場營銷學教授阿賈伊·卡爾拉說道。 「在一個有趣的實驗中，一群消費者被告知A品牌的皮夾克非常好。當他們後來考察了幾個品牌時，他們往往會花更多時間關注A品牌，並且對它的評價比其他品牌更高。”

        The same principle applies to a coffee company’s claim that its coffee is the “richest” in the world.

同樣的原則也適用於咖啡公司聲稱其咖啡是世界上「最濃鬱」的咖啡。

 “Confirmation Bias typically applies to situations where information is ambiguous and hard to refute,” he explains. “The more often you hear a message, the more the confirmatory bias likely comes into play.”

他解釋道：“確認偏誤通常適用於訊息模糊且難以反駁的情況。” “你聽到某條訊息的次數越多，確認偏誤就越有可能發揮作用。”

         It’s no wonder that many of us fall for false claims on social media, especially when we see them tweeted and retweeted again and again. 

難怪我們中的許多人都會相信社交媒體上的虛假言論，尤其是當我們看到這些言論一遍又一遍地被轉發時。

How can we fight back? 

我們如何反擊？

There are ways to lessen the influence of repeated claims. 

有一些方法可以減輕重複索賠的影響。

One of the best: don’t rely on a single source for information. 

最好的建議之一：不要依賴單一的資訊來源。

Read stories from multiple news outlets and listen to a variety of opinions. 

閱讀多個新聞媒體的報導並聽取各種意見。

Commit to staying open-minded, and consult with friends and colleagues whose perspectives differ. 

致力於保持開放的心態，並向觀點不同的朋友和同事請教。

Take a second to consider how you know something is true. 

花一點時間考慮一下你如何知道某件事是真的。

In this way, you can stymie the effects of repetition. 

透過這種方式，你可以阻止重複的影響。

It’s a great thing to do on social media: before you share something, take that second and pause. 

在社交媒體上做這件事很棒：在你分享某些東西之前，花一秒鐘停下來。

Otherwise, you risk becoming part of the echo chamber that keeps falsehoods circulating.

否則，你就有可能成為讓謊言不斷傳播的回音室的一部分。