They can exaggerate, evade or embellish the truth. They may blovia, or blame, or blame their memory. But, experts say, smart politicians rarely lie outright.
“People tell each other lies,” former cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said this week at the start of the ABC documentary Nemesis. The first of a three-part series, covering Australia’s Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years between 2013 and 2022.
And among the various insults leveled, there were many striking examples of politicians directly contradicting each other’s versions of events.
Meanwhile, accusations of lying are being leveled at Labor after it rejected the phase-three tax cuts.
Perceptions of dishonesty can mean political death, but – as “truth coach” Elly Johnson points out – there is a vast and complicated continuum between “the truth” and “a lie”.
Johnson, who trains people – including in government agencies – in security checks, is working on a book documenting the 50 (or 60) shades of gray between truth and lies.
“The goal is to really understand how complex the subjects of truth and lies are and how nuanced are the ways in which we avoid telling the truth,” she says.
Everyone thinks they are fundamentally honest, even if they lie, she says. And most prefer to tell the truth – unless it gets in the way of achieving their goals. Then they venture into the gray zone.
“It may not be a blatant lie,” Johnson says, but it would fall into two main types of falsehoods — concealment and fabrication. And there are many subtypes.
“It can be ambiguity, embellishment, evasiveness, exaggeration, obfuscation, misleading, even things like partial truths. It might be selective amnesia (‘I just can’t remember’).” Other categories “that can happen in politician land,” she says, include:
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Deliberate confusion (a deliberate tactic to create confusion, deliberately creating a state of uncertainty or misunderstanding. “Detailed programmatic specificity”, anyone? ).
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To distract (redirect focus away from a specific topic or issue).
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Exaggeration (exaggerating or exaggerating the truth to make something seem more significant).
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False emotions (displaying an emotion to display or mask the true emotion).
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Telling the truth falsely (by accepting an outcome but blaming the wrong thing for it).
“They do exist on a continuum,” says University of Western Australia professor of cognitive psychology Ullrich Ecker. “There are objective truths… but in the middle there is a lot of gray.”
His research showed that, at least in the 2018 pre-election prime ministerial contest between Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, it was hard to find actual lies. “Australian politicians don’t tend to do that, compared to Trump,” he says.
“They’re pretty good at dancing around the real question, dodging things and not saying things that can be checked.”
There is also a difference between lying and being a jerk – the liar either knows the truth or can work it out and choose not to. The nonsense simply don’t care.
The former prime minister John Howard had nuclear and non-nuclear commitments. Abbott once said that the statements of his that “must be taken absolutely as gospel truth” were “those carefully prepared, scripted comments”.
Political observers often note that politicians answer the question they wish they were being asked instead of the one they are actually faced with.
This can lead to awkward non-sequiturs, while others may try to “bridge”; disguise the initial question to get out what you want to talk about. The federal MP Bob Katter gave an unforgettable example of this in 2017.
When asked about same-sex marriage, he replied: “Let a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I’m concerned, you know.
“But I don’t spend time on that, because in the meantime a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland every three months.”
Consultant and former Liberal adviser Damon Hunt says, done properly, bridging is an “art form”.
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“Smart, experienced politicians don’t lie outright,” he says. “The consequences are too severe if they are caught, and it is too easy to check information these days.
“Lies are politically stupid and will eventually catch up with you, whether it’s the media investigating the background, or advisers, or the opposition.
“That said, there are many other ways to get your message across, including negative and difficult messages.
“Bridging is a media technique where you acknowledge the question that has been asked, but answer it in a way where you really talk about what you want to talk about. You can see experienced politicians do it very well.
Hunt also says that when multiple people recount an event, they are likely to all report slightly different versions of what happened. But saying “I can’t remember” doesn’t sit well with the public.
“The advice I give clients is that most of the time the truth comes out,” he says.
“If you tell a pork pie, chances are you’ll get caught and make things worse. Tell your story and tell it as strongly as you can, but there are certain parameters you have to work within and being honest is one of them.”
Ecker says there is a lot at stake with falsehood. Globally, there are leaders who blatantly lie and some who dispute the existence of objective truth. “It threatens the very fabric of democracy, which relies on frank debate in good faith,” he says.
So can we spot a political liar?
A psychologist, a former FBI agent and a fraud investigator gave their best tips to spot a liar. The list includes looking out for self-soothing gestures such as facial touching; strange sounds or random words; told nervously. But they also warned that most people cannot spot deception.
Ecker says to watch for politicians who avoid questions, use emotional language and fear-mongering.
“Look out for [where] it is clear that they are being fed a narrative that is intended to instill fear of a potentially negative outcome or a group of people … where the argument is divisive and pits one group against another,” he says.
Johnson says to be on the lookout for “incongruence,” where someone’s movements don’t mirror their words. Liars may show “deception stress” such as a shaky voice, or avoid eye contact – but she warns that people should not jump to conclusions.
Someone who looks stressed doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lying. And someone whose words and actions seem congruent can be.
“A liar can still pull it off,” she says. “They can deceive you.
“Especially if they are trained in it.”
