The internet has produced a wealth of fact-checking options so we can all investigate statements from public figures — but politicians being deceptive is nothing new. In fact, says Dr. Matthew McGlone, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Texas in Austin who spoke with Vice, people have bemoaned political dishonesty for centuries:
VICE: Polls indicate that American public trust in institutions is at an all-time historic low. Are institutions actually lying more frequently than they have in the past?MCGLONE: I think it's a new incarnation of what's been going on for a long time. There's a book called The Devil Wins, about a history of the public's perception of deception. He'll point out things that were written in essays read at various royal courts in Europe, things that monks wrote in the medieval era, talking about how deception has become so rampant that God is going to strike us down because we've become so corrupt. [Vice]
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