The roughly 10,000th guest appearance by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on the media close to the authorities, specifically on Pink on Sunday, October 5, was announced fiercely, more lavishly than ever before: we will find out and see what we could not even imagine, the blind will see, and the immobile will start training in rhythmic gymnastics. After that address, nothing will be the same. In those days, circuses used to advertise themselves when they came to a small town, along with quacks who advertised miraculous waters.
And what did we find out? It seems that Miša Bačulov, a councilor from Novi Sad who used to do martial arts professionally, tore down a canopy in Novi Sad and thus started massive student and citizen protests, which have been going on for eleven months, and with which Vučić does not know what to do with. We also learned that the "colored" conspiracy is much bigger than we could imagine even if we took hallucinogenic mushrooms: millions of spies and paid souls are involved in destroying the president's personality, and many of them have infiltrated various institutions, including the security ones.
Now, as long as Bachulov, in collusion with the anti-Serbian inhabitants of the planet Proxima Centauri b from the Centaur constellation, carried out a diversion, that is, destroyed the canopy at the Railway Station, which Vučić insinuated, he would have to resign immediately. Why? Because it took him almost a year to figure it out, which, realistically, is a lot for a man who knows everything. And if he lied about Bachulov, that is, if things are the way the investigative authorities have determined (roughly, that the fall is the cause of construction "Shalabeizerism"), then he would have to resign again, as a responsible politician. But, if Vučić was responsible, he would have resigned ten times a day by now, as many times as the public caught him in lies or manipulative games with facts or half-truths in these 13 years.
Who is a pathological liar?
Recently, Vučić called the Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetić, who disclosed to the public the details of the agreement between the Serbian and Croatian authorities in the NIS case, a "pathological liar". On the other hand, for years now, some laymen, but also some professionals, claim that it is Vučić who has the qualities of a consistent manipulator, a megaloaf who got hold of power and authority.
We will not decide on this issue, but we will "take a look" at what psychological science says. First, we will question the AI, and then check its findings with experts, as to how journalism should be done. Because even AI sometimes knows that bullies, like pathological liars, may God forgive them.
Elem, when a pathological liar reaches a position of power, the lie becomes an instrument of control, manipulation and self-protection. He builds his own version of reality that everyone around him must unquestioningly believe. He lies knowingly and systematically to maintain full control over information and people, maintain the loyalty of subordinates, discredit dissenters, justify failures, and create the appearance of success. He twists the facts, rewrites other people's merits to himself, changes the narrative on the fly, encourages mutual distrust, falsifies previous statements, confidently predicts the future when it suits him - and all this with the complete conviction that he is "building the truth".
Sound familiar? Nothing new?
Why do people believe lies?
However, we are interested in another question. Why do some people believe pathological liars despite common sense telling them the truth lies elsewhere? We will not deal here with those who "believe" for benefit, that is, who for the sake of benefit participate in the frantic creation of a parallel reality, in which everything is turned upside down.
Basically, science says that people who believe pathological liars become completely disoriented over time and lose the ability to distinguish between reality and imagination. What would the people say: they don't know where they are hitting, or whether they have eaten or just sat down.
Some have a psychological, and others a pathological need to trust proven manipulators. Let's start from possible personality disorders and pathological trust, which is in principle characteristic of the close environment of pathological liars and is most often based on personal relationships.
There are people who have an addictive personality disorder. They rely too much on others, fear rejection and therefore "want to believe". There is also the position of victim among those who live with and depend on narcissistic and antisocial personalities. And then there are those who want to help, people with emotional naivety or low self-esteem - who think they have to "save" or "understand" the other person in spite of everything.
Emotionally immature people, who have childhood frustrations, trust the manipulator, seeking self-affirmation and love at any cost. They are easy targets for pathological liars because they confuse manipulation with attention. And even when they recognize the lies, they suppress that knowledge in order to preserve the existing relationship.
The psychological need is more pronounced in mass manipulations
Apart from the pathological, there is also a psychological need to believe liars. It is primarily based on the premise that people do not trust a person so much as their need to trust. It can be the need for security, belonging or love, but also simply avoiding facing the painful truth.
Namely, many people subconsciously protect themselves from the terrible trauma that would follow if they admit to themselves that someone close to them is a pathological liar and manipulator. For many, especially those who unquestioningly believe in the power and infallibility of the state as a protective mother, it would be an even greater trauma to learn that there is a megapreverant at the head of the state. Their whole world would come crashing down. There is also the so-called cognitive dissonance - when the brain tries to reduce the discomfort by "rationalizing" the lie.
Let's be clear, all this is not a diagnosis but a psychological defense mechanism, experts say.
"The largest number of people who (blindly) trust someone, and especially if the person they trust has authority, do not belong to the pathology group. They are, first of all, people who are not inclined to change, have more conservative views, as a rule, are older, less educated, more often from families where hierarchy and a clear power structure were insisted on, and the like. Pathology is less often the basis of blind belief," Vladimir Mihić, professor of psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, tells us.
The need to be right
Blind faith, says Mihić, is based on the need to be right, to rationalize our actions and maintain the belief that we did something right.
"If at some point we come to the threshold of knowing that we have trusted someone who is not telling the truth, that knowledge can be too painful for many people and they simply do not want to face it. Instead, they continue to irrationally cling to what they believed. However, for most people, the frequent confrontation of facts eventually leads to too strong a cognitive dissonance that can be resolved by changing attitudes or beliefs that we can no longer explain the trust we have (or we had) in those people who lie to us", says Mihić.
All in all, the interlocutor tells us, if we are talking about the relationships of individuals with people who are prone to manipulation, then it is more often related to pathological patterns.
"If we are talking about a more massive trust in manipulators, then the explanation through pathology is less likely, since it corresponds to a smaller number of people. In those cases, the better explanation is based on social relations, the situation, the power of the authority that manipulates people, and of course, propaganda through controlled media," concludes Mihić.
This October, "Vreme" celebrates and honors - as much as 35 percent discount for our 35th birthday! Valid for semi-annual and annual subscriptions. Subscribe now!
