{"id":4841,"date":"2023-09-26T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?p=4841"},"modified":"2023-10-13T13:51:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T13:51:55","slug":"donald-trumps-truth-why-liars-might-sometimes-be-considered-honest-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/donald-trumps-truth-why-liars-might-sometimes-be-considered-honest-new-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s truth: why liars might sometimes be considered honest \u2013 new\u00a0research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephan Lewandowsky<\/a>, University of Bristol<\/a><\/em> and Jana Lasser<\/a>, Graz University of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

According to fact checkers, Donald Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims<\/a> during his presidency. That\u2019s around 20 a day. But, according to several opinion polls during his presidency, around 75% of Republican voters<\/a> still considered Trump to be honest. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It seems incredible that a serial liar \u2013 whose biggest lie about the 2020 election results led to a violent insurrection and nearly brought American democracy to its knees \u2013 is still considered honest by so many people.<\/p>\n

We began to tackle this question in a recent article<\/a> that examined the political discussions of all members of the US Congress on Twitter between 2011 and 2022. To do this, we analysed nearly 4 million tweets. Our approach was based on the idea that people\u2019s understanding of \u201chonesty\u201d involves two distinct components.<\/p>\n

One component can be referred to as \u201cfact-speaking\u201d. This form of speech relies on evidence and emphasises veracity and seeks to communicate the actual state of the world. Most of us probably consider this an important aspect of honesty. By this criterion, Donald Trump cannot be considered honest.<\/p>\n

The other component can be referred to as \u201cbelief-speaking\u201d. This focuses on the communicator\u2019s apparent sincerity, but pays little attention to factual accuracy. So when Trump claimed that the crowds at his inauguration were the largest ever (they were not), his followers may have considered this claim to be honest because Trump seemed to sincerely believe the claim he was making.<\/p>\n

Healthy political debate involves both fact-speaking and belief-speaking. Political ideas often cannot be contested based on facts alone, but also require beliefs and values to be taken into account. <\/p>\n

But democratic debate can be derailed if it is entirely based on the expression of belief irrespective of factual accuracy. <\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s senior advisers, then US counsellor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, coined the phrase \u201calternative facts<\/a>\u201d in order to back her boss by persisting with the falsehood about the largest inauguration crowd. This allowed viewers to choose whose \u201cfacts\u201d to accept.<\/p>\n

Within two years Trump\u2019s senior lawyer and adviser Rudy Giuliani was insisting on national TV that \u201ctruth isn\u2019t truth<\/a>\u201d. He was defending Trump\u2019s feet-dragging over submitting to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller and the likelihood that Trump\u2019s testimony would conflict with sworn testimony offered by another witness.<\/p>\n

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