http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300933_pf.html

" When University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that within 30 minutes, ... people misremembered 28 percent of the false statements as true. Three days later, they misremembered 40 percent of the myths as factual.
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"Most troubling was that people of all ages now felt that the source of their false beliefs was the respected CDC.

"The psychological insights yielded by the research, which has been confirmed in a number of peer-reviewed laboratory experiments, have broad implications for public policy. The conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths.

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"Research on the difficulty of debunking myths has not been specifically tested on beliefs about [gun control]. But because the experiments illuminate basic properties of the human mind, psychologists such as Schwarz say the same phenomenon is probably implicated in the spread and persistence of a variety of political and social myths.

"The research does not absolve those who are responsible for promoting myths in the first place [such as Drs. Kellerman and Wintermuth]. What the psychological studies highlight, however, is the potential paradox in trying to fight bad information with good information.

Manipulate the truth, tell a lie (myth) ofter enough, there will be some people who will accept it as fact.

Curse the ones that promote the lie to further their own agenda.

Works on FOX "news" too!