From Pine View Farm

All the News That Fits 0

Sam Goldstein, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, looks at how fiction can masquerade as fact. He notes that

Take crime, for example. Television dramas and true-crime documentaries constantly bombard us with images of serial killers, elaborate heists, and endless shootouts. As a result, many people believe that crime is spiraling out of control. However, violent crime rates have declined significantly in many countries, including the U.S., over the past few decades (Gramlich, 2020). The disconnect between reality and perception can be traced back to how stories are told—and the power of repeated exposure. When a dramatic narrative is repeated often enough, it becomes a “truth” in viewers’ minds.

He goes on to discuss how this effect also manifests itself in “social” media and “news” coverage.

In this age of mis- and disinformation, his article is well worth a read.

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