konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign
ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Friday, July 1, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
LIFESTYLE: Reasons many politicians lie, By Bisi Daniels

LIFESTYLE: Reasons many politicians lie, By Bisi Daniels

byBisi Daniels
May 19, 2016
3 min read

There are some general reasons why politicians, the world over, lie so much. They do so without any guilt. But peculiar to Nigeria or other infant and growing democracies are high levels of impunity, the need to win at all cost, and the docility of the electorate.

Most politicians are narcissists in nature. So they are arrogant, self-important, see themselves as special. They require excessive admiration and are exploitative. They tend to believe that they are always right and, even if they are not, they are too powerful to suffer the consequences.

African politician

For many years in Africa, the impunity of public officers was not challenged. Even when the media and civil society groups flashed brazen cases of impunity, there was no consequence management in the end.

There have also been instances where issues of lying, impunity and even fraud have been politicized, with some sections of the country rising up in support of kinsmen.

And of course, severely impoverished people have resigned themselves to fate, worrying more about how they can feed than what politician do or fail to do in plush government houses. Their situation is so bad that crump dropped for them come as divine intervention.

The constellation of these factors gives political leaders the license to lie. Were they held accountable for every word, for every promise made, they would be more careful with their words and actions.

The False Truth

Unfortunately, it would seem that when a lie is told enough times, people will assume it is true. It is not a stretch to understand why people would believe something if they hear it enough. People expect that lies will be disproved and fade away. So if the lies continue to be heard, people assume, then they must be true.

One of the unintended consequences of the Internet is that information, true or not, lives on forever and it is likely to continue to be believed even in the face of contradictory evidence. Studies have shown, for example, that people are more likely to believe unsubstantiated rumours about a political candidate they oppose them when read in emails and on blogs.

Generally, the lies are fueled by the desperation to win at all cost. Experts have observed that politicians justify their lies and distortions by using a sort of “gaming” analogy. In the same way that a football player will fall and roll over to pretend that there was a foul, the politician believes it’s right to lie or distort, because the ends justifies the means.

Studies

Researchers have also shown the following reasons: Politicians know their followers will believe them, even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Politicians and their adherents live in an echo chamber in which everyone watches the same news channel, listens to the same talk radio, reads the same newspapers and web sites, and hangs out with the same like-minded people. So there is an impermeable membrane that prevents conflicting information from entering. The content of the lies is also usually red meat for the politicians’ ravenous base who are only too happy to chew on it for days on end.

According to the researchers, many people don’t want to hear the truth, a fact which is exploited by political sycophants. Truth, as the saying goes, hurts and no one wants to hear things that threaten their existence, their beliefs, or that will make them uncomfortable. It is decidedly better for politicians to tell people what makes them feel comfortable. Few politicians want to be the purveyors of bad news, when they can get away with fairy tales with happy endings.

The following human weaknesses that tend to encourage lying by politicians have also been identified by experts such as Dr. Ronald Riggio.

The Trusting Bias: We tend to trust people too much. Our default psychological mechanism is to believe rather than disbelieve (unless we are in law enforcement, or other professions concerned with professional liars). That is why we are such easy targets for con artists, AND politicians.

Cognitive Laziness: When we hear a claim by a politician, we often don’t (and don’t want to – particularly if the politician is one we support) engage in the mental and physical effort to fact check. Together with the trusting bias, we figure that “he said it, so it must be true.”

Audacious Lying: In politics (and to some extent in social life), the more outlandish or audacious the lie, the more likely people are to believe it if the source is considered at least minimally credible. Even though politicians are on the bottom rungs of “trustworthy” professionals, when it comes to political facts and figures, we give them the benefit of the doubt, and figure, “that seems so crazy that he must be telling the truth,” and cognitive laziness ensures that we don’t check it out.

The opportunities for politicians to lie are as many as there are politicians, but integrity makes a great politician.

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket


CITIZEN-FM AD


Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: Call Willie - +2348098788999






PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

UNILORIN wins inter-university Qur’an recitation, memorisation competition

Next Post

Concerns mount over Nigeria’s plan to buy warplanes from U.S.

Bisi Daniels

Bisi Daniels

More News

Moppan PRO Ciroma and Zarewa

Alleged Defamation: Kannywood singer, Zarewa, apologises to MOPPAN, actresses, in new song

June 30, 2022
Photo of Hebeeb Okikiola, fondly called portable in police custody at Eleweran, Police headquarters, Ogun state.

Threat to Life: Nine days after summon, Portable finally submits self to Ogun Police

June 30, 2022
Funke Akindele and JJC Skillz.

JJC Skillz confirms his marriage to Funke Akindele has ended

June 30, 2022
R.Kelly

R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking

June 29, 2022
Derenle Edun, Asquared Network, Linda Ikeji and Frank Osodi

Fummi Iyanda’s ‘Public Eye’ Season 2 screened in Lagos

June 29, 2022
Chacha Eke and husband Austin Faani

Marriage Crash: Chacha Eke’s husband, Austin Faani, breaks silence

June 29, 2022
Next Post
PHOTO NEWS: Buhari Meets Obama in Washington

Concerns mount over Nigeria's plan to buy warplanes from U.S.

Fuel Price Hike: NLC, TUC, to go ahead with strike despite court order

NLC strike picks up in Kano, Plateau; universities, LGA secretariats closed

Leave Comment

Search

AUN-PT Ad




Access Bank Ad







Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,901,775 other subscribers.

Advertisement




netherland biz school Advert



ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • DONATE
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • PT Hausa
  • Dubawa NG
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.