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Updated January 25, 2012 12:59 AM

Why Politicians Get Away With Lying

Debaters

• 

  When Lies Become the Norm

  Sissela Bok, author, "Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life"
  Politicians might lie when they think they will get away with it, hoping that enough people will be misled and that others won’t hold it against them.
• 

  Lies and the Conservatives Who Love Them

  George Lakoff, linguist, University of California, Berkeley
  Politicians lie to protect or advance what they see as a moral endeavor, like invading Iraq or cutting off 'welfare queens.'
• 

  Why Lie When You Can Evade?

  Todd Rogers , Harvard Kennedy School and Michael I. Norton, Harvard Business School
  In voters' eyes, politicians are better off answering a question they weren't asked than inelegantly answering the question at hand.
• 

  Politics Is a High-Stakes Game

  Lynn Vavreck, political scientist, UCLA
  We might not tolerate lying from kindergarteners, but when candidates engage in half-truth, there is something in it for their supporters.
• 

  Half-Truths and Other Fractions

  Matthew McGlone, professor of communication, University of Texas at Austin
  The public recognizes that politics is full of gray areas, and that politicians will always try to render them in black and white.

Introduction

Mikel Jaso

Maybe it’s a sign that the public has given up on honesty from presidential candidates. Instead, in a recent flurry prompted by the public editor of The New York Times, the assumption seems to be that politicians will always lie and that voters’ defense against that is fact checking by journalists.
But … why do voters let politicians lie to them? What sort of lies do people accept, and which do they object to?
Todd Rogers of the Harvard Kennedy School and Michael I. Norton of the Harvard School of Business organized this discussion.
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