Beyond Fact-Checking: Lexical Patterns as Lie Detectors in Donald Trump’s Tweets

Davis, D. & Sinnreich, A. (2020). Beyond fact-checking: Lexical patterns as lie detectors in Donald Trump’s tweets. International Journal of Communication, 14, 5237–5260.

33 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2022

See all articles by Dorian Davis

Dorian Davis

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Aram Sinnreich

American University School of Communication

Date Written: 2020

Abstract

Journalists often debate whether to call Donald Trump’s falsehoods “lies” or stop short of implying intent. This article proposes an empirical tool to supplement traditional fact-checking methods and address the practical challenge of identifying lies. Analyzing Trump’s tweets with a regression function designed to predict true and false claims based on their language and composition, it finds significant evidence of intent underlying most of Trump’s false claims, and makes the case for calling them lies when that outcome agrees with the results of traditional fact-checking procedures.

Keywords: Donald Trump; fact-checking; journalism; lying; Twitter; truth-default theory

Suggested Citation

Davis, Dorian and Sinnreich, Aram, Beyond Fact-Checking: Lexical Patterns as Lie Detectors in Donald Trump’s Tweets ( 2020). Davis, D. & Sinnreich, A. (2020). Beyond fact-checking: Lexical patterns as lie detectors in Donald Trump’s tweets. International Journal of Communication, 14, 5237–5260., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4250444 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4250444

Dorian Davis

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Aram Sinnreich (Contact Author)

American University School of Communication ( email )

Mary Graydon Center
4400 Massachusetts Av. NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.american.edu/soc/

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