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Yesterday, Singapore’s Law Minister K Shanmugum directed that 9 POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act) orders be issued against individuals and publications for misrepresenting his statement about the rule of law in Singapore.
While it may seem petty, science is on his side.
Many people think the best way to deal with online misrepresentation is to ignore it. They believe that by not responding, it will fade over time. While this approach will deny additional attention, unfortunately, the damage to Minister Shan (and the government) will not fade.
During the Second World War, Psychologist Carl Howland studied the impact of propaganda films on soldiers. What the study found was that while there was no noticeable change to the soldiers’ attitude immediately after viewing the film, noticeable changes were identified nine weeks later. Howland concluded that this was due to the psychological effect where the source of the argument fades faster than the arguments in the memories of the soldiers. This phenomenon is termed the sleeper effect.
The sleeper effect is further validated in election campaigns around the world where negative campaigning continues to shape election results. Even if the source of the negative information is included in the collateral (as dictated by law in…
