Politicians everywhere make big and often fabricated claims. And across the world news outlets try to fact-check these claims to inform the public. However, according to new research, these efforts may be in vain. In a study conducted in the USA, Briony Swire-Thompson and others show that even when people are shown that a politician has lied, their support for the politician remains largely unchanged.
In the study, 1,501 American participants were asked to rate their belief in statements made by Donald Trump, the US president, and Bernie Sanders, a Democratic politician at the other end of the political spectrum. After rating the statements, participants were presented with a neutral fact-check and asked to reevaluate their belief in the statements and their views about the politician making them. The authors find that when presented with corrected misinformation, participants reduced their belief in the misinformation but did not actually change their beliefs about the politician who made the statement. This trend cut across the political divide with supporters of both Trump and Sanders reacting similarly to fact-checks.
According to the authors, one reason for this could be that a politician’s willingness to flout the norms of honesty may actually increase his perceived authenticity among supporters. Another reason could be that false statements are seen as unintentional errors rather than a deliberate intent to deceive.
Finally, the authors highlight their results differs from a similar study conducted in Australia, where participants did change their views about left wing and right wing politicians after discovering false statements. According to the authors, this could suggest that the importance of honesty in politics could depend on the political culture of the country.
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