Michaela Wänke, Monika Undorf
The Divided Tribes of Fluency or: What is Fluency Anyhow?

53rd DGPs Congress/15th ÖGP Conference, Wien, 16. bis 19. September 2024

Fluency influences liking, perceived truth, probability and frequency estimates, persuasion, Hybrid Symposia confidence, and a host of other judgments. Seminal papers (e.g., Reber et al. 1998; Reber & Schwarz, 1999) suggested that the source of fluency and its outcome are independent of each other, summarized in the well-known notion of “uniting the tribes of fluency” (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009). We challenge this assumption in two ways. First, we show empirical evidence that different types of fluency have specific effects. Truth judgments were affected more by conceptual than by perceptual fluency and vice versa for aesthetic judgments. Based on this observation, we discuss where the functional equivalence hypothesis of fluency is advancing our understanding of meta-cognitive processes and effects and where it is a hindrance. We will then extend the focus and juxtapose different theoretical conceptualizations of fluency and their operationalizations. Apparently, different scholars seem to hold different conceptualizations - although they may not be aware of it. In particular, we point out divergent perspectives between research rooted in social versus cognitive psychology. Our goal is to stimulate a fruitful exchange, to develop a clearer concept of what we are talking about, and to advance the understanding of fluency and its role in (social) cognition.