The findings of recent research suggest that people might be willing to condone statements they know to be false and even spread misinformation on social media if they believe those statements could eventually become true in the future.
The study was published in APA’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Whether the situation involves a politician making a controversial statement, a business stretching the truth in an advertisement or a job seeker lying about their professional skills on a resume, people who consider how a lie might become true subsequently think it is less unethical to tell because they judge the lie’s broader message (or “gist”) as truer.
“The rise in misinformation is a pressing societal problem, stoking political polarization and eroding trust in business and politics. Misinformation in part persists because some people believe it. But that’s only part of the story,” said lead author Beth Anne Helgason, a doctoral student at the London Business School. “Misinformation also persists because sometimes people know it is false but are still willing to excuse it.”
This study was sparked by cases in which leaders in business and politics have used claims that “it might become true in the future” to justify statements that are verifiably false in the present.
To explore why people might be willing to condone this misinformation, researchers conducted six experiments involving more than 3,600 participants. The researchers showed participants in each study a variety of statements, clearly identified as false, and then asked some participants to reflect on predictions about how the statements might become true in the future.
In one experiment, researchers asked 447 MBA students from 59 different countries who were taking a course at a UK business school to imagine that a friend lied on their resume, for example by listing financial modelling as a skill despite having no prior experience.
The researchers then asked some participants to consider the possibility of the lie becoming true (e.g., “Consider that if the same friend enrols in a financial modelling course that the school offers in the summer, then he could develop experience with financial modelling”). They found that students thought it was less unethical for a friend to lie when they imagined whether their friend might develop this skill in the future.
In another experiment, 599 American participants viewed six markedly false political statements designed to appeal to either conservatives or liberals, including, “Millions of people voted illegally in the last presidential election” and, “The average top CEO makes 500 times more than the average worker.”
