“The worst things in history have happened when people stop thinking for themselves, especially when they allow themselves to be influenced by negative people. That’s what gives rise to dictators. Avoid that at all costs. Stop it first on a personal level, and you will have contributed to world sanity as well as your own.” – Donald Trump
Propaganda or “Fake News” as President Trump referred to it is so pervasive in our culture; we have trouble discerning what information is real and what is not. It has become increasingly difficult to tell the truth from the lies.
Why is that?
Psychologist Tom Stafford wrote about the “illusion of truth” A method by which propagandists can get people to believe in lies. He explains a “typical experiment” that tests this theory. It involves telling participants true and untrue things in one session and repeating it an hour or even weeks later. It found that participants were more likely to believe what they have been told the second time. Repetition is a shortcut people use in order to quickly process information and evaluate it. However, if someone has absolute knowledge that something is a fact or fiction, repetition will not necessarily work to make that person believe the lie.
We need to stand up a question the things we hear, do our research, and think for ourselves.