Ugly Game of Telephone: The Way I Hear It, Our Enemies Are to Blame - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society

“The findings strongly suggest that third parties to a conflict should be skeptical when listening to conflict narratives, and to question their authenticity."
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We’ve all seen it happen: A simple dispute grows into a major controversy. As news spreads, antagonistic attitudes harden, and soon an argument among a handful of individuals is viewed as a symbolic struggle between “us” and “them.”

What’s behind this destructive dynamic? New research suggests at least part of the answer lies in the way we tell, and retell, stories.

It finds that the more often a tale gets repeated, the more skewed it becomes, with each new version distorting the facts a bit more.

As a result, one of the parties involved—the one the storyteller and listener inherently identify with—is increasingly portrayed in a more favorable light. Within just a few tellings, an ambiguous event is transformed into a clear-cut case of “our side” being wronged.

That’s the conclusion of a research team led by psychologists Tiane Lee and Michele Gelfand of the University of Maryland-College Park. In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the researchers describe an experiment that demonstrates one unfortunate way stories get distorted as word is passed from person to person.

Ugly Game of Telephone: The Way I Hear It, Our Enemies Are to Blame - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society