THE OUTRAGE TRAP
Opinion Piece by Jonathan Bernstein
What do these three claims have in common?
- President Obama’s finance team and Nancy Pelosi are recommending a 1% transaction tax on all financial transactions.
- Mitt Romney said, “Of course I’ll win, I’m the white guy.”
- Target Corporation does not contribute to veterans’ causes and provides corporate grants only for gay and lesbian causes.
They are all examples of what I’m calling an “Outrage Trap,” which I define as follows:
Outrage Trap: A communication containing false information designed to elicit outrage that furthers the purposes of the trap setter.
You see them in your email and online every day, and sometimes you pass them on to your friends without fact checking at a site such as Snopes.com because the messages really push your buttons. They elicit outrage, as they’re designed to do, and further the cause of whatever political or activist group (or members thereof) from which the dishonest communication originated.
This devious form of crisis communications – designed to create a crisis for the target of the message – has been enhanced by the speed of the Internet rumor mill. The best way to quash any rumor is to get the facts out quickly. Unfortunately, within an hour or less. thousands or even millions of people online have already seen the inaccurate and unchallenged information.
The best solution, for all of us as communication consumers, is to remember that the buck stops with the person in the mirror. Don’t be a dupe. Don’t automatically believe what you learn from a single social or traditional media source. Fact checking is everyone’s responsibility.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Jonathan L. Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.
Erik Bernstein is vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the VP position.
Snopes is great, but should an organization depend on the rational behavior of the recipient of misinformation? Good luck with that!
‘…get the facts out quickly.’ Are we ready to do this? Providing information that truly rebuts many rumors will require a greater degree of transparency than our organizations may be used to.
As an example, Target probably needs to release a full report of all their corporate giving to rebut the myth quoted above. Are they ready to do that? Are they ready for the new questions the report will bring when scrutinized in the newly negative environment?
An instant-information world requires greater transparency. Communicators need to fight this battle BEFORE it is needed. As in…. now.
Are we ready with the facts AND a brief enough explanation of our process/philosophy that illuminates the facts? How many words will we get to explain ourselves? How many words fit into a text message. Brutal math but probably accurate – you get 140 characters to justify your existence. Crisis haiku.
Well put, Marc. The only thing I’d add is that wise communicators ensure that the 140 characters include the link to a URL where one can expand further on the message, making the Tweet more of a “teaser” than a complete message.
Best regards,
Jonathan