Big lie

The big lie is the idea that people will believe a falsehood if it is repeated often enough and is so outrageous that people simply cannot believe it is untrue. The idea, which is often used in propaganda, has been attributed to Adolf Hitler who used the term in his 1925 political manifesto, Mein Kampf. Hitler and the Nazis used a big lie to vilify the Jews in the years before World War II (1939–1945). The proliferation of the Nazis’ lie eventually led to the justification for the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

Political observers have noted the use of the big lie as a propaganda tool into the twenty-first century. For example, former President Donald Trump repeatedly pushed false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him by voter fraud. Russian President Vladimir Putin also used false claims of Western aggression and oppression to justify his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Psychologists contend that the big lie works because the human mind will easily accept a falsehood if it supports a person’s illusion of reality.

Background

Lying to manipulate others is undoubtably as old as humanity itself. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs spread the belief of their divine connection to the gods, and later claimed to be gods themselves. In Egypt and other early civilizations, leaders constructed monuments or carved inscriptions to brag about their accomplishments—some of which were greatly exaggerated or simply made up. In ancient Greece, political leaders and their supporters used theater, sports contests, and public forums to promote their ideas, whether they were true or not.

Prior to the rise of mass media in the twentieth century, nations and their leaders often used falsehoods to mold public opinion. People then had no way to verify the news that they were being told, so military defeats could easily be turned into victories, and annoying political opponents could be made out to be treasonous rebels. For example, in 1588, the Spanish sent a large fleet of ships to invade England. This powerful Spanish Armada was considered invincible but was soundly defeated by the faster, more maneuverable British fleet. Yet, the Spanish began to spread word across Europe that they had won the battle, presumably to keep up the appearance that Spain was still a powerful empire.

The idea of perpetuating falsehoods for gain has not been limited to the political realm. In the first half of the twentieth century, tobacco companies pushed the idea that cigarettes were not addictive, and some even claimed that they were “good for you.” Tobacco companies often featured doctors in their ads, claiming that a certain percentage of physicians preferred their brand of cigarette over others. Although the connection between smoking and cancer was not made until the 1950s, doctors knew that cigarettes could cause severe coughing and throat irritation. Oftentimes, such claims about cigarettes were made up for advertising purposes or the doctors had been paid by the tobacco company.

Overview

The phrase “big lie” is often attributed to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels because it has been rumored that he said these words: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” However, Goebbels likely never said this, although he did make use of the sentiment behind it. The concept of the big lie was instead first expressed by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler wrote the work in prison after his failed attempt at a coup in 1923. He was sentenced to five years but was released after just nine months. In Mein Kampf, Hitler states that the larger population will “more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” His logic was that while people may question the details of a small lie, they will more readily accept a big lie, especially one repeated often enough.

Germany in the 1920s was a defeated nation, having just lost World War I (1914–1918) and facing additional humiliation from the peace treaty ending the conflict. Hitler and others in Germany looked to shift the blame for the defeat away from those responsible and find a scapegoat that the public would accept. They found their scapegoat in the Jewish people, who had historically faced antisemitism in Germany and much of Europe.

Hitler claimed that the Jews had a history of using falsehoods and had wrongly blamed the defeat in World War I on Germany’s military leaders. However, Hitler and his supporters pushed the idea that it was the Jews themselves who had “stabbed Germany in the back” by undermining the war effort on the homefront. Hitler used these antisemitic beliefs, along with political and economic discontent among the German public, to seize control of the nation in 1933.

Immediately after gaining power, Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and named Goebbels as the agency’s head. With strict control of the nation’s media, Hitler and Goebbels continued to promote the lie that Jews were responsible for Germany’s problems. Nazi propaganda only intensified as the treatment of Jews in Germany became progressively worse during the 1930s. Nazi-controlled media often claimed that the rising acts of violence against Jews were justified as a means of “restoring order.”

By the time World War II had begun, the Nazis maintained that Jews were the true powers pulling the strings of their Allied enemies. When Nazi discrimination turned to organized murder, they masked the truth with lies that the Jews were being sent east as sources of labor and that the removal of Jews from overcrowded ghettos was “beautification.” By war’s end in 1945, more than six million Jews had been murdered.

Modern examples

The use of the big lie has continued into the twenty-first century, with political leaders often deploying the tactic to bend public opinion in their favor. After losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump began to push the narrative that Biden’s victory was a result of voter fraud. The 2020 election was held during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many states increased the use of mail-in ballots rather than risking people heading to the polls. On election night, Trump seemed to hold a lead in several key states. However, when the mail-in ballots were counted a few days later, Biden had won those key states and the presidency.

Although no evidence of voter fraud was found, Trump continued to insist that the vote had been “stolen” from him. His rhetoric in perpetuating the idea has been blamed for inciting his followers to storm the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, as the official vote was being formalized. Five people died in the attack.

In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into neighboring Ukraine to overthrow the government of the former-Soviet republic. Putin maintained that the action was necessary because Ukraine’s relationship with Western nations was a “threat” to Russia’s existence. He also claimed that Russian citizens in Ukraine faced oppression and genocide, and his invasion was an attempt to “de-Nazify” the nation. While the international community soundly rejected these explanations, Putin’s comments were most likely intended to justify the invasion to the Russian people.

Believing the big lie

It may seem strange that people will still believe widespread falsehoods in an era of mass media, when they can easily verify information. However, psychologists believe that the phenomenon is not unusual and may have something to do with a defense mechanism used by the human mind. The human brain is predisposed to seek pleasurable stimuli and reject painful ones. People can feel threatened by ideas that that they consider to be unpleasant. When faced with an unpleasant truth or a comfortable lie, the human brain may choose to accept the illusion of truth as a more pleasurable option. Even when exposed to the reality of a situation, the brain may block out the unwanted truth and refuse to accept it. In this way, people tend to see “truth” as they want it to be and not as it really is.

Similarly, the idea that a lie reinforced by repetition is more likely to be accepted as true has been backed up by psychological research. According to a 2019 study published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, statements that are repeated are more likely to believed regardless of whether they are true or false. Researchers had more than five hundred subjects judge the truthfulness of eighty statements. Some statements were true, others were false, and still others were plausible. No matter what the ultimate truth of the statement, subjects consistently judged those that were repeated as true over those just mentioned once.

Bibliography

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Brands, Hal. “Putin’s Biggest Lie: Blaming NATO for His War.” Bloomberg, 13 Mar. 2022, www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-13/russia-invades-ukraine-putin-s-biggest-lie-is-blaming-nato-for-war. Accessed 21 July 2022.

Hoyt, Alia, and Jane McGrath. “11 of the Biggest Lies in History.” How Stuff Works, 18 Mar. 2022, history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-biggest-lies-in-history.htm. Accessed 21 July 2022.

“Joseph Goebbels: On the ‘Big Lie’.” Jewish Virtual Library, 2022, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot. Accessed 19 July 2022.

Marquette, Chris. “Trump Pushed ‘Big Lie’ Despite Knowing It Was False, Ripped Small Donors Off, Jan. 6 Panel Says.” Roll Call, 13 June 2022, rollcall.com/2022/06/13/trump-pushed-big-lie-despite-knowing-it-was-false-ripped-small-donors-off-jan-6-panel-says/. Accessed 21 July 2022.

Martinez-Conde, Susana. “I Heard It Before, So It Must Be True.” Scientific American, 5 Oct. 2019, blogs.scientificamerican.com/illusion-chasers/i-heard-it-before-so-it-must-be-true/. Accessed 21 July 2022.

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