fluency

Fluency is how easily the mind takes something in — reading without stumbling, getting it without strain.

Psychologists call it processing fluency. The mind quietly uses that ease as a signal: what is easy to process feels more familiar, more likable, and more true — even when it isn't. (Read 2026-06-10: Oppenheimer, "The secret life of fluency", TICS 2008.) So fluency is the castle's friend when it comes from plain true words, and its enemy when smoothness alone is mistaken for truth.