Australians seem to value the truth much more than Americans!

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An interesting survey has just been carried out that compared Australian attitudes to truth and lies with American ones. The researchers showed 450 people a set of statements by the leaders of Australia's two main political parties, most of these statements being factually false, but this was not disclosed to the subjects. The subjects were also asked about their political leanings and voting intentions. They were then shown the statements a second time, but told that they had been fact-checked as being mostly false. Attitudes towards the politicians changed markedly, whether the subjects had been favourably or unfavourably inclined towards the party leaders. Opinion of the leaders went markedly downhill. When the same experiment was conducted in the United States, with American subjects and statements by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the result was very different. Being told that a statement was false made hardly any difference to the favourability score and voting intentions of the subjects. It turns out that Australians are ten times more likely to change their view of a politician who was been shown to be telling lies than an American is! In other words, it doesn't matter what garbage is thrown down the throats of American voters - once a politician has their loyalty, they have it for life, however many lies and factual untruths Donald, Bernie and the rest might tell!