Mobilize Cause & Guilt Against Fake News

In an election campaign, if the other side tells a lie about the candidate or cause you’re championing, you may be tempted to issue a terse denial. “No, it’s not true!,” you would proclaim, and leave it at that. To give a detailed response, or even fully repeat the claim yourself, breathes life into it, so goes the logic.
     However, studies at Boise State University, University of Western Australia, and Virginia Tech confirm what experienced politicians realize: To move toward persuading voters it’s fake news, you must provide an alternative version of the events. This held true as far back as 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s initially sparse, disjointed response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims. He lost the election, you will recall. This in spite of those claims being thoroughly discredited later. The need for a rebuttal story holds even more true now, in these polarized times when sufficiently stimulating hogwash generates viral retransmission.
     Not any alternative version will do, though, say the studies. It should anchor itself in details which are commonly acknowledged to be true and then aim to comprehensively connect those details in a story of cause-and-effect. This is necessary because even when we’re given corrective information, the previous malicious stuff continues to influence us if it ties together the known events more neatly.
     But wait, there’s more. Getting out ahead with the complete story of cause-and-effect often isn’t enough in politics. Voters prefer to recall the version which reinforces what they want to believe. Ease this resistance to believing the truth by arousing guilt at continuing to embrace the objectively less plausible version.
     Consumer psychologists distinguish guilt from shame. With guilt, the person acknowledges they’ve done something wrong. With shame, the added element is that the person believes others hold them responsible. Researchers at RTI International in San Francisco, George Washington University, and University of Pennsylvania, motivated study participants to experience either guilt or shame. Compared to those induced to feel guilty, people induced to feel shame were more likely to express anger. They were irritated at what they perceived as efforts to manipulate them. Shame backfired.
     Navigate toward guilt and away from shame with the message, “You’ve been fooled. It wasn’t your fault that you were told this error-filled tale. Your trust in the source was reasonable, but may have been betrayed.”

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Endorse Policy, Not Character, Political Attacks
Craft Powerful Stories
Aim Away from Shame