Cognitive Dissonance? Studies Reveal the Bizarre Way Trump Supporters Cope With Serious Allegations

A bunch of psychological studies have found something surprising about President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters.

Researchers conducting three different studies looked at how Trump supporters reacted to some of the president's controversial statements and sexual abuse allegations leveled against him.

Turns out, many supporters use a certain mental coping method to deal with these kinds of information.

The studies, published in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, show a clear pattern across different groups of people, raising concerns about how they process truth in politics today.

Starting in October 2019, a number of psychology studies were conducted across America to see how Trump's supporters dealt with serious allegations against him.

In the first study, conducted in October 2019, 128 adults who supported Trump in the 2016 election were asked about claims of sexual misconduct linked to the president.

More than half of the group said they simply did not believe the accusations.

Later, a second study was conducted in December 2019, right after federal lawmakers voted to impeach the president.

This time, 173 MAGA supporters were asked about the accusations against Trump, including fabrication of facts and sexual assault allegations.

Once again, the research showed similar results, where people either denied the claims, avoided the topic by focusing on his policies, or said they did not care about the allegations at all.

Another study was conducted in 2022 after Trump’s arraignment over the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots.

During this research, 187 Trump supporters were asked about their opinions on the allegations against the president.

The study once again found the same pattern, where more than 60 percent of participants believed the accusations were false.

Across all three studies, researchers saw a clear trend.

Trump supporters either rejected the allegations against him, ignored them, or shifted focus to other issues instead.

Following the three studies conducted with hundreds of Trump supporters, researchers noted that they point to one main reason behind the reactions: cognitive dissonance.

This cane be described as a feeling of stress when someone’s beliefs clash with facts. Therefore, to deal with this, many choose to deny or ignore the information available.

Study author Cindy Harmon-Jones, senior lecturer in psychology at Western Sydney University told PsyPost that her interest in conducting the research came from real-life experiences.

Harmon-Jones said she was confused seeing so many supporters choosing to admire Trump despite serious accusations.

“I was motivated by real-life experiences. I’ve been puzzled and confused by the continuing support and admiration that Donald Trump’s supporters hold for him, despite the many accusations that he has engaged in sexual assault, corruption and other immoral and illegal activities.” Harmon-Jones said.

She added, “I wanted to give those supporters a chance to explain in their own words why they support him.”

The senior lecturer said that she embarked on this research in order to understand Trump supporters and their thinking pattern. However, unlike earlier research, these studies allowed people to give open-ended answers.

This gave participants more freedom to explain their views, instead of choosing from fixed options.

As a result, researchers could better understand the mental gymnastics that people performed to justify their beliefs.