# Of fluency, beauty, and truth: Inferences from metacognitive experiences Norbert Schwarz **Abstract:** . To evaluate whether a claim is likely to be true, people attend to whether it is compatible with other things they know, internally consistent and plausible, supported by evidence, accepted by others, and offered by a credible source. Each criterion can be evaluated by drawing on relevant details (an effortful analytic strategy) or by attending to the ease with which the claim can be processed (a less effortful intuitive strategy). Easy processing favors acceptance under all criteria – when thoughts flow smoothly, people nod along. Ease of processing is also central to aesthetic appeal and easily processed materials are evaluated as prettier. This sheds new light on why beauty and truth are often seen as related, by poets and scientists alike. Because people are more sensitive to their feelings than to where their feelings come from, numerous incidental variables can influence perceived beauty and truth by influencing the perceiver’s processing experience. Poets and scientists alike often assume that beauty and truth are two sides of the same coin. From John Keats’s (1820) assertion that “beauty is truth, truth beauty” to Richard Feynman’s (1981) belief that “you can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity,” beauty has often been offered as a heuristic for assessing truth. Although history abounds with beautiful lies and elegant theories that nevertheless proved wrong, the intuition holds considerable appeal. This appeal most likely reflects that judgments of beauty an **Authors:** [[Norbert Schwarz]]