truthiness

Truthiness is the quality of a proposition or belief that seems true based on intuition, emotion, or cultural appeal rather than on evidence or verifiable facts. It describes judgments that feel correct to individuals or groups even when they lack support from data, logic, or reliable sources. The concept emphasizes the influence of appearance, storytelling, and rhetoric on what people accept as true.

The term was coined by American comedian Stephen Colbert in 2005 on The Colbert Report. He described truthiness as what one feels to be true in the gut, as opposed to what can be proven true by facts. Colbert’s usage was satirical, aimed at highlighting how political messaging and media can persuade through style, certainty, and repetition rather than through demonstrable truth.

In public discourse, truthiness is used to analyze political communication, journalism, and social media. It is associated with cognitive biases such as the affect heuristic, confirmation bias, and the availability heuristic, which can make emotionally resonant claims seem more convincing than abstract facts. The term is also linked to post-truth discourse, where emotional resonance and narrative often outrank objective evidence.

Critics note that truthiness can be vague or misapplied as a rhetorical label, and it is not a scientific measure of truth value. Nonetheless, it serves as a shorthand in debates about rhetoric, misinformation, and the role of emotion in belief formation.

See also: truth, post-truth, misinformation, cognitive bias, propaganda.