Truth Wins: True Information is More Persuasive and Shareable than Falsehoods

The English poet John Milton portrayed truth as a powerful warrior capable of defeating falsehood in open combat. The spread of false information online suggests otherwise. Four experiments, involving human participants and Large Language Models (combined N=4607), are reported that compare the persuasive impact and transmission potential of true and false information. The results consistently showed that messages created with the intent of being true were more persuasive and more likely to be shared than those created to be false. While perceived message truth was the primary driver of persuasion, positive emotion and social engagement were the primary drivers of message transmission. Our findings indicate that in the marketplace of ideas, truth wins.