It’s my favorite season—voting season—when I’m challenged to find some kernel of truth in the rampant lies voiced by many politicians. The most entertaining time occurs after primaries when the loser discounts all the scurrilous aspersions that they recently had heaped upon their same-party primary competitors. In essence, the former candidate implies that they were not being fully honest about their same-party opponent during the campaign, but NOW that the election is over, the citizenry can trust everything they, themselves, say and do. Could they be hoping to derive some benefit from their political campaign retractions? Might they, for instance, be pandering for a coveted position in the new administration? Or am I being too cynical?
The electorate, too, mostly forgives lies that occurred during the primaries, conveniently forgetting all the preceding “partisan bickering” concerning their party’s representatives and “lining up behind” the party’s general election candidates. We might conclude that voters ignore the lies to maintain some semblance of their own self-respect, and that would be a reasonable conclusion. On the other hand, it might not be the gullibility of the electorate so much as the prevarication skills of the politicians that promotes the “all lies are forgiven” orientation. By looking at research regarding “masters of deceit” we can evaluate whether it applies to professional politicians.
A study called, Lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liars (Verigin, et al. 2019) is instructive. To extrapolate from that research, we need to entertain the reasonable assumption that successful prevaricating politicians have not recently developed their craft. Neither should we imagine that their lies are limited exclusively to formal election campaigns and speeches. They likely practice their deception skills in their everyday lives with everyday people. If so, that would be consistent with the Verigin results.
The Verigin group, in fact, did find that self-reported good liars have well-practiced, strategic approaches to deception. As one would expect, they lie more often than average people do, and they lie to a more varied group of people. Moreover, the lies have become second nature to the point that many of them are inconsequential. They frequently lie about topics that most people would not consider worth the effort. Successful liars have implicit and/or explicit lying formulas. Most present their misinformation in uncomplicated language that appears reasonable. To make the lies less apparent, they often are preceded and followed by other related information that is obvious and true.
So, it is in character that many politicians who had spoken so convincingly against their competing same-party opponents are quick to reverse themselves afterwards. And they are as glib in their retractions as they were in their previous indictments. They certainly seem to embody many of the "good liar" characteristics recounted above. The most accomplished political liars are well-practiced, lie more often than average people do, and lie to a more varied group of people. If you watch them carefully, you will notice that they typically have implicit and/or explicit lying formulas. Most present their misinformation in uncomplicated language that appears reasonable. Moreover, to make the lies less apparent, they often are preceded and followed by other related information that is obvious and true.
But don't take my suggestions at face value. Observe the most successful politicians on your own. See whether they are or aren't good liars. And if you have the time and inclination, read the section of my Justifiably Paranoid book (McCusker, 2019) that describes the "dark triad" personality type that is very common among powerful politicians.
References
The electorate, too, mostly forgives lies that occurred during the primaries, conveniently forgetting all the preceding “partisan bickering” concerning their party’s representatives and “lining up behind” the party’s general election candidates. We might conclude that voters ignore the lies to maintain some semblance of their own self-respect, and that would be a reasonable conclusion. On the other hand, it might not be the gullibility of the electorate so much as the prevarication skills of the politicians that promotes the “all lies are forgiven” orientation. By looking at research regarding “masters of deceit” we can evaluate whether it applies to professional politicians.
A study called, Lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liars (Verigin, et al. 2019) is instructive. To extrapolate from that research, we need to entertain the reasonable assumption that successful prevaricating politicians have not recently developed their craft. Neither should we imagine that their lies are limited exclusively to formal election campaigns and speeches. They likely practice their deception skills in their everyday lives with everyday people. If so, that would be consistent with the Verigin results.
The Verigin group, in fact, did find that self-reported good liars have well-practiced, strategic approaches to deception. As one would expect, they lie more often than average people do, and they lie to a more varied group of people. Moreover, the lies have become second nature to the point that many of them are inconsequential. They frequently lie about topics that most people would not consider worth the effort. Successful liars have implicit and/or explicit lying formulas. Most present their misinformation in uncomplicated language that appears reasonable. To make the lies less apparent, they often are preceded and followed by other related information that is obvious and true.
So, it is in character that many politicians who had spoken so convincingly against their competing same-party opponents are quick to reverse themselves afterwards. And they are as glib in their retractions as they were in their previous indictments. They certainly seem to embody many of the "good liar" characteristics recounted above. The most accomplished political liars are well-practiced, lie more often than average people do, and lie to a more varied group of people. If you watch them carefully, you will notice that they typically have implicit and/or explicit lying formulas. Most present their misinformation in uncomplicated language that appears reasonable. Moreover, to make the lies less apparent, they often are preceded and followed by other related information that is obvious and true.
But don't take my suggestions at face value. Observe the most successful politicians on your own. See whether they are or aren't good liars. And if you have the time and inclination, read the section of my Justifiably Paranoid book (McCusker, 2019) that describes the "dark triad" personality type that is very common among powerful politicians.
References
Brianna L. Verigin ,Ewout H. Meijer,Glynis Bogaard,Aldert Vrij (2019).
Lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liarsPublished: December 3, 2019https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225566
Plos One
McCusker, P. (2019). Justifiably Paranoid: Resisting Intrusive and Malicious Influences.
Seattle: Amazon.
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