What Is Post-truth?

Post-truth is in. This little word is named every so often without our understanding its meaning. But, calm down, here we are to explain what it consists of. Post-truth is defined as a deliberate distortion of reality. In other words, post-truth is the manipulation of beliefs and emotions with the aim of influencing public opinion and people’s attitudes.

Post-truth refers to emotional use, unleashing people’s emotions to change their thoughts while camouflaging the facts, which actually happens. The best known area in which post-truth has been used is in politics. For this reason, some terms have emerged such as populist discourses or fake news that reflect post-truth. These terms and the psychological keys that help us understand them will be explained below.

Use of post-truth

As has been said, post-truth is based on speeches and writings, which try to move us to manipulate them or distort the reality we perceive. That is why many politicians have used this in order to gain support among the population. One of the most used resources is populist speeches. These are speeches in which the masses are stirred up by promising the impossible. Promising “by the people and for the people” policies and simple solutions to all problems.

On the other hand, using the rise of social networks and the internet, fake news has gained importance. The news fake false news, also called canards, normally used for deliberately misinform. Every day we are bombarded with so much information, what is called infoxication, that it is very difficult to certify whether it is true or not. This contributes to us ending up believing some fake news and taking it for granted.

The lure of post-truth

Why is post-truth so attractive? Why do these speeches and news end up convincing us? Mainly, the reason that post-truth is attractive is in the narrative. Both speeches and news share several characteristics that increase their appeal. Some of these characteristics are simplicity and consistency. They propagate very simple explanations that we can understand and also have coherence.

Post-truth is based on dichotomies. “Everything is black and white”, “If you are not one of the good guys, you are with the bad guys”. Furthermore, post-truth promises a hopeful future. These characteristics of post-truth are going to make her attractive, especially to certain people. Specifically, for those who feel confused, disoriented and insecure. These characteristics of people will make them have a greater need for cognitive closure. In addition, these people usually feel threatened, humiliated or insignificant, which is why they also have an intense motivation to search for importance.

Psychological keys to understanding post-truth

As seen, there are two psychological factors that make us more prone to post-truth or post-truth narrative. These are: a high need for closure and a high motivation to search for importance. Both factors describe the mentality of the “losers of globalization” who feel abandoned in a world that changes rapidly and where they do not find their place.

People with these characteristics are disoriented and confused. His way of doing things no longer works. Technology has made their skills obsolete and their jobs taken away. They feel humiliated and undervalued. In desperation, they passionately embrace post-truth narratives, dispelling their uncertainties and vowing to make them great again. These promises to end all your problems and offer you certainty and hope are going to be accepted very easily.

However, although the use of the internet has increased the use of fake news , it also provides us with resources to recognize them. There are specialized pages where these false news are discovered (for example: Maldito Bulo) and guides to know how to distinguish a false news from a real one. Some of these tips are: see who the author is (many fake news do not include an author), check that the same news appears in different media and see if a clear ideology is seen or, on the contrary, it presents different points of view. In short, so that post-truth does not deceive us, it is necessary to develop critical thinking.