Trump Priming: The Anatomy of a Wedge Lie

What happens to democracy when political leaders lie to their citizens? Using the case of the 2020 US Presidential election, my research conceptualises a type of lie (the Wedge Lie) that presents a material threat to democratic health through its potential to weaponise mass communications, further polarise the public through a manipulation of emotional responses to the lie which in turn can damage trust judgements, and galvanise action from both ingroup and outgroup audiences.

I situate my research in the wealth of literature that has robustly demonstrated the importance of trust, both political and social, to the functioning of a healthy democracy. Testing the theory of the Wedge Lie, my research design comprises three strands; analysis of secondary data from Twitter, an online survey experiment of 1000 US citizens, and semi-structured interviews with elected representatives in the state of Georgia.

The contribution of this thesis is both theoretical and empirical. In developing the theory of the Wedge Lie, I have introduced a new conceptual framework to give shape to our understanding of lying in modern political discourse, and the case study of Trump’s “Big Lie” offers a paradigmatic example of that concept. I have also delivered new empirical evidence about the impact of the Wedge Lie on both citizens and the political elites who represent them. Data from the survey experiment demonstrates the ability of the Wedge Lie to trigger significant negative emotional responses, which in turn impact trust judgements. The quantitative analysis is complimented by the qualitative data from interviews with state lawmakers. These interviews are the first, to my knowledge, that seek to test the impact of political lies on the day-to-day business of governing. Together, these contributions offer a new perspective on the threat presented by this type of lie to the healthy functioning of democracy.