Democracy's eternal vulnerability: Increasing resilience to disinformation by raising the two components of political truth literacy

The vulnerability of democratic systems to political disinformation has become a defining challenge of contemporary governance. Despite considerable attention, theoretical understanding remains undeveloped and persistent solution failure continues. To fill this gap the article develops a comprehensive theory of resilience to disinformation in democratic systems. Analysis suggests the main root cause of the present lack of resilience is low political truth literacy, whose cognitive components are logical truth quotient (LTQ) and appropriate action quotient (AAQ). Both are presently low. Simulation shows that raising them to medium causes the winning political strategy to shift from disinformation to truth telling, extreme polarization is eliminated, bipartisan consensus becomes the norm, and resilience is achieved. The theory is supported with a proof-of-concept experimental study testing a novel intervention specifically designed to raise LTQ and AAQ. Multiple solution elements will be required for full resilience.