From: San Francisco Chronicle
Psychology explains why Trump supporters shrug at impeachment
Impeachment fills the headlines, yet President Trump’s hard-core supporters so far brush aside the revelations of wrongdoing.
It boggles the mind. How can these Americans remain so steadfast? And will they persist? Was Trump right to claim that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters”? Are Trump’s supporters akin to cult members?
Our discipline, social psychology, supplies some answers.
…
Widespread acceptance of Trump’s well-documented lies is especially puzzling, but social psychology offers explanations. First is the power of mere repetition (“crooked Hillary,” “witch hunt,” “fake news”). In experiments, mere repetition makes things believable.
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