Truth decayFacing up to truth decay
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” That sentiment, once expressed by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, seems to be falling out of fashion in America’s current civil discourse. RAND Corporation’s Michael Rich has dubbed this phenomenon “Truth Decay,” and it is the subject of ongoing research designed to explore what is eroding the public’s trust in facts and institutions—and how to stop the trend.
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” That sentiment, once expressed by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, seems to be falling out of fashion in America’s current civil discourse. Michael D. Rich, president and CEO of the RAND Corporation, has dubbed this phenomenon “Truth Decay,” and it is the subject of ongoing research designed to explore what is eroding the public’s trust in facts and institutions—and how to stop the trend.
Samantha Bennett writes that as part of the Conversations at RAND series designed to highlight important and timely research, a discussion on “Truth Decay and Community Engagement” brought together Jennifer Kavanagh, a RAND political scientist, and William “Pat” Getty, an engineer, September 20, at RAND’s Pittsburgh office. Kavanagh and Rich are authors of Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.
Kavanagh broke down the problem of Truth Decay into four disturbing trends:
