The difference between trust and truthfulness

Let me make clear that I regard it as important that

• people involved in politics at all levels should try to make their public statements as accurate as possible, 
• I hugely regret that, with some honourable exceptions on both sides, there was a dire failure to do this by the campaigns on both sides of the EU referendum, and 
• I think that British politics would be hugely improved if people in all the major parties were to improve the accuracy of the things they say.

In other words nothing in this post is meant to justify false or misleading statements.

I have just discovered an interesting article by Will Dunn published by the New Statesman, dated on General Election day (somehow I missed it when it originally came out - I was just a little busy on that day!) called

"Why voters trust certain politicians, even when they know they’re lying."

Dunn quotes an academic from the other side of the pond, Stephen Martin, who says that


“Lots of us confuse truth and trust.”

Martin continues:

 “We think they’re either the same thing, or they have some relationship – which is not true.” 

In etymology the two concepts may be linked but in psychology,

“trustworthiness is essentially our ability to predict someone else’s future behaviour”. 

In other words it is possible, and may even be rational, when asked if you believe everything that a political candidate has said is true, to consider that the answer is no, (either because you think they are mistaken or are deliberately lying,) but still vote for them because you think that they are more likely than the rival candidate to deliver something that you want and is very important to you.

I don't agree with everything in Dunn's article, and I have absolutely no wish to defend anyone in any party who fails to tell the voters what they think is true. I merely draw the attention of the article to anyone with an interest in politics in general and truth in politics in particular because if you want to understand how to make truth-telling more prevalent you have to start by understanding how those who have not been completely straightforward with the voters often get away with it.

You can read Will Dunn's article here.

NB. I have deliberately worded this article to avoid making partisan points about which side in politics is more truthful, and instead tried to approach the issue from the perspective that all parties need to do better. Any comments which take a similar approach will be welcome and will be read with interest. 

I reserve the right not to accept comments on this particular thread which take a much more partisan view and particularly not any comments which amount to personal attacks on the integrity of someone who the person posting doesn't like. If you post "X is a liar" I will probably delete the post even if I agree with you.