Donald Trump and the Lie

The legitimacy of democratically elected governments rests in part on widespread acceptance of the outcome of elections, especially among those who lost. This “losers’ consent” allows the winners to govern and, when the incumbent is the losing party, it allows for a peaceful transition of power. What happens in a democratic system when one side not only refuses to concede, but actively perpetuates lies about the outcome?

This paper studies the consequences of Donald Trump’s “big lie” using a daily tracking survey, yielding 40-days of polls and over 20,000 responses from American voters. We find that the lie is pervasive and sticky — the number of Republicans and independents believing that the election was fraudulent is substantial, and this proportion did not change appreciably over time or shift after important political developments. CONTINUED

Kevin Arceneaux (Temple) & Rory Truex (Princeton), PsyArXiv


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