Letting the Gorilla Emerge From the Mist: Getting Past Post-Truth

Stephan Lewandowsky*, John Cook, Ullrich K.H. Ecker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debate (Academic Journal)peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
575 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We welcome the nine constructive and insightful commentaries on our target article. The commentaries proposed a number of creative, evidence-based applications of the principles we proposed. Here we identify common themes among the commentaries, including one relating to the political intentionality underlying much disinformation that we only partially addressed and that thus had remained shrouded in mist. We synthesize the suggestions from the commentary into a proposal that may help overcome the post-truth malaise, provided a final obstacle can be overcome. This obstacle is the gorilla in the room: Policy making in the United States is largely independent of the public's wishes but serves the interests of economic elites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)418-424
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2017

Research Groups and Themes

  • Memory
  • TeDCog

Keywords

  • Demagoguery
  • Fake news
  • Misinformation
  • Post-truth politics

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