The Demise of Truth?

A couple of years ago, in his My Three Cents blog, PR guru Ken Makovsky wrote about the concept of “truthiness,” a word coined by the Stephen Colbert, host of the Comedy Channel’s Colbert Report. Truthiness is believing what you feel or wish were true, without reference to logic, evidence or facts.

There’s new book out called True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, by Salon.com staff writer Farhad Manjoo. In it, he explores the idea — well supported by cognitive scientists— that when the facts don't fit a person’s frame of reference, the frame stays and the facts are ignored.

Manjoo cites a study by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar and Washington Post columnist Richard Morin who tested Republicans and Democrats’ reactions to a list of headlines covering topics ranging from politics and race to travel and sports. The headlines were randomly paired with one of four logos: BBC, CNN, Fox and NPR. Not only did the Fox logo triple Republicans’ interest in stories about politics and Iraq, it even increased Republicans' interest (and decreased Democrats' interest!) in headlines about travel and sports.

The rise of the internet and the disintermediation of the mainstream media were supposed to help us get to the truth faster than ever before. But when people choose to read only the news that supports their ingrained prejudices, those of us who are responsible for public relations and brand management must recognize that we are facing a bigger challenge than ever before.