Abstract
<p>Repeated exposure to a statement increases its perceived truthfulness, a phenomenon known as the truth effect. While most prior truth effect research focuses on identical repetition (i.e., repeat the exact statement as it is) within a single language, there has been increased research interest in examining (a) the effects of inconsistent repetitions (i.e., repeat a statement with altered information), and (b) the truth effect across different languages. However, so far, there is no established multilingual norm for competing, alternative versions of the same statements, limiting progress in these research avenues. The current study addresses this gap by norming 100 lesser-known trivia statements, each with a true and a false version that differs in only one central detail, across three languages (English, Spanish, and Italian). The normed data and stimuli are openly accessible at https://osf.io/dqu2g/. We provided item-level mean truth ratings (for both true and false versions), plausibility (i.e., perceived truth for the general gist shared across true and false versions), and discriminability (i.e., sensitivity to the specific verbatim detail that differentiates true and false versions), which can help researchers to select, match, or manipulate the statements based on their research purposes. Analyses for the normed data revealed notable cross-language differences, indicating that translated statements are not necessarily perceived as equally truthful across different language communities. The present norms therefore provide a valuable tool to control for such pre-existing differences that may confound cross-language comparisons of the truth effect.</p>