The internet has made access to information and the communication of ideas so easy; it has transformed the world. Information has become a commodity, and the diffusion of information as fact or fiction has led rise to industries dedicated to researching how to separate the two. It is now a societal norm for governments to spread misinformation to create discord, push an agenda, change elections and avoid compromise. Truthfulness when viewed from the perspective of a world filled with misinformation, is considered a virtue.
Discussing the modern issue of the broad dissemination of misinformation, one cannot avoid examining the rise of social media use in the world. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are among the most extensive online platforms for people to share information and express ideas. Currently, Facebook lists 2.2 billion active users, Instagram 1 billion users with Twitter having a mere 326 million1. The population of the world’s largest country is China with 1.4 billion2 people arguably makes social media the largest independent country in the world with easily the most extensive social influence.
Social media was designed with the expression of free speech and an open internet in mind. There were no controls in place to look for false accounts or blatant misinformation. It did not take long for people to realize they could express themselves with little fear of consequences. Belief became more important than finding out if the information was accurate. Why did ignoring the truth become so easy for so many?
Truthfulness strictly defined means “The fact of being true”3 and true defined as “in accordance with fact or reality.”4. Truthfulness as a virtue becomes less black and white. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and is valued as of foundation of principle and good moral being5. Therefore, truthfulness as a virtue is communicating facts to facilitate the principle of being morally good.
Is not anything less than the truth a lie and therefore a fall from virtue? Truthfulness is often confused with honesty. While truth is an accurate representation of reality, honesty is communicating thoughts and beliefs accurately7. One can communicate with complete honesty and still be untruthful. For example, a person may sincerely believe that tax cuts for the rich are a solid government policy because trickle-down economics work only because the constant exposure to misinformation had led the person to conclude this as fact despite decades of research proving otherwise.
A danger of this type of false belief is that the longer the belief is not grounded in truth, the higher the likelihood that when the person is confronted with contrary evidence, they will deny the facts. Over time, the person has incorporated false information into a core belief. When faced with evidence that is contrary to their core belief, the person feels a mental discomfort that leads to behavior of wanting to reduce the discomfort and restore harmony8. This state of discomfort is known as cognitive dissonance, and the easiest way to resolve the discomfort is to deny the contrary evidence. The result is that when a person asserts their false belief, although they are being untruthful, they are being honest.
Aristotle viewed this in a different light with his doctrine of the mean9. Aristotle considered that achieving a virtuous life meant working toward a balance of the opposite extreme tendencies of a virtue. For example, Courage would not be considered a virtue if a person was fearless to the point of overconfidence and recklessness. On courage’s opposite extreme would be cowardice, someone who shows too much fear and not enough confidence.
Applying the mean to truthfulness for Aristotle meant a boastful person for one extreme and a mock-modest person for the other10. A boastful person professes pride over one’s achievements, abilities or possessions with a motive to gain something from it such as praise, reputation or money. The modern-day example would be a U.S. President with 54.8 million11 Twitter followers who regularly tweets about how great he is and how much he has accomplished.
A mock-modest person is one who understates the truth in order to seem more appealing. If a surgeon were to profess that he was barely involved in saving the life of a patient he operated on, this might be viewed as avoiding boastfulness. If that same doctor were in line to be promoted to head surgeon, understating the surgeon’s involvement in trying to make the doctor look selfless might provide a greater chance for that advancement, the surgeon would be guilty of mock-modesty. In this light, neither extreme is “lying” but overstating or understating their qualities in order to gain something.
A truthful person in Aristotle’s view is someone who speaks the truth whether they have something at stake or not and avoids falsehoods. Telling the truth is not enough; people must also be doing so whether they have something to gain or not. John Locke may have summarized it best when he wrote: “To love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.”12.
How can we seed more truth when social media misinformation has become so prevalent? Recognizing there is a misinformation issue is the first step. The United States Intelligence community reported in 2016 that there were Russian covert activities targeted to influence the United States Presidential elections13. These public revelations led to Facebook revealing that Russia had been purchasing fake ads and creating false accounts with the goal of influencing the United States general population and create discord14. Instagram and Twitter were manipulated in much the same way.
The resulting media frenzy steered social media companies to create stricter policies to reduce fake accounts and false ads and designing features that show the source of an ad or article. These steps while helpful, are unlikely to stop people from wanting to move from a core belief, even if it is a falsehood.
Web sites like Politifact and Snopes have rocketed from small fact-finding sites to full-blown research and trusted source information. Scientific evidence is called on for evidence by the mantra of “cite your sources” and peer-reviewed journals carry the most weight. Searching for the peer-reviewed source material is available directly from the institutions’ online database, such as the American Medical Association to obtain medical information or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for climate studies information. It is becoming a habit for people to search these sites when they want to verify if a story is factual.
If fact-checking can become a regular part of social media use, then the balance of the truth may be possible. To achieve balance, people will need to want to be truthful in their assertions instead of just being honest about their beliefs. A balance of the truth may be achieved if the amount of truths starts outweighing the number of falsehoods. Truthfulness for online users may eventually be an achievable virtue.
Works Cited
- “Global Social Media Ranking 2018 | Statistic.” Statista, Statista, Jan. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/.
- “China Population.” United Arab Emirates Population (2018) - Worldometers, Feb. 2019, www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/.
- “Truthfulness | Definition of Truthfulness in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, Feb. 2019, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/truthfulness.
- “True | Definition of Truthfulness in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, Feb. 2019, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/true.
- “Virtue | Definition of Truthfulness in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, Feb. 2019, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/virtue.
- Aristotle. Aristotle's Ethics : Writings from the Complete Works, edited by Anthony Kenny, Princeton University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uml/detail.action?docID=1689364.
- Sherman, Jeremy E. “The Difference Between Honesty and Truth.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 1 Aug. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ambigamy/201808/the-difference-between-honesty-and-truth.
- Mcleod, Saul. “Cognitive Dissonance.” Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 5 Feb. 2018, www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html.
- Losin, Peter (1987). Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean. History of Philosophy Quarterly 4 (3):329 - 341.
- Ross, William David. “Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle: Book IV. Moral Virtue Chapter 7.” Sacred Texts, 1908, www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ari/nico/nico041.htm.
- Trump, Donald J. “Donald J. Trump (@RealDonaldTrump).” Twitter, Twitter, 18 Feb. 2019, twitter.com/realDonaldTrump.
- Straub, Steve, and Watch Booker. “John Locke, Truth for Truth's Sake Is the Principal Part of Human Perfection.” The Federalist Papers, 23 Feb. 2013, thefederalistpapers.org/political-philosophers/john-locke/john-locke-truth-for-truths-sake-is-the-principal-part-of-human-perfection.
- Priest, Dana, et al. “U.S. Investigating Potential Covert Russian Plan to Disrupt November Elections.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Sept. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-community-investigating-covert-russian-influence-operations-in-the-united-states/2016/09/04/aec27fa0-7156-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?utm_term=.732cd5662ef9.
- Guynn, Jessica. “Russia's Internet Research Agency May Have Been behind Facebook Election Meddling.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 7 July 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/11/06/russias-ira-may-behind-facebook-instagram-election-interference/1916737002/.