The term for the “fear of truth” is alethophobia. I’m not familiar of many other great terms in this area (curious to hear suggestions).
Apparently “Epistemophobia” is a thing, but that seems quite different; Epistemophobia is more the fear of learning, rather than the fear of facing the truth.
One given definition of alethophobia is, “The inability to accept unflattering facts about your nation, religion, culture, ethnic group, or yourself”
This seems like a incredibly common issue, one that is especially talked about as of recent, but without much specific terminology.
Without looking, I’ll predict it’s a neologism—invented in the last ~25 years to apply to someone the inventor disagrees with. Yup, google n-grams shows 0 uses in any indexed book. A little more searching shows almost no actual uses anywhere—mostly automated dictionary sites that steal from each other, presumably with some that accept user submissions.
Yea, I also found the claim, as well as a few results from old books before the claim. The name come straight from the Latin though, so isn’t that original or surprising.
Just because it hasn’t been used much before doesn’t mean we can’t start to use it and adjust the definition as we see fit. I want to see more and better terminology in this area.
From the Greek as it happens. Also, alethephobia would be a double negative, with a-letheia meaning a state of not being hidden; a more natural neologism would avoid that double negative. Also, the greek concept of truth has some differences to our own conceptualization. Bad neologism.
The trend of calling things that aren’t fears “-phobia” seems to me a trend that’s harmful for clear communication. Adjusting the definition only leads to more confusion.
I want to see more and better terminology in this area.
I think I want less terminology in this area, and generally more words and longer descriptions for things that need nuance and understanding. Dressing up insults as diagnoses doesn’t help any goals I understand, and jargon should only be introduced as part of much longer analyses where it illuminates rather than obscures.
Can you give examples of things you think would fit under this? It seems that there are lots of instances of being resistant to the truth, but I can think of very few that I would categorize as fear of truth. It’s often fear of something else (e.g. fear of changing your identity) or biases (e.g. the halo effect or consistency bias) that cause people to resist. I can think of very few cases where people have a general fear of truth.
The term for the “fear of truth” is alethophobia. I’m not familiar of many other great terms in this area (curious to hear suggestions).
Apparently “Epistemophobia” is a thing, but that seems quite different; Epistemophobia is more the fear of learning, rather than the fear of facing the truth.
One given definition of alethophobia is,
“The inability to accept unflattering facts about your nation, religion, culture, ethnic group, or yourself”
This seems like a incredibly common issue, one that is especially talked about as of recent, but without much specific terminology.
https://www.yourdictionary.com/alethophobia
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=teUEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10&dq=alethophobia&redir_esc=y&hl=en&fbclid=IwAR19KAulFSCERMWGR2UCDyiUQrF5ai_PpgxV-cQ0vM7ggaBaHQQlHhuy9sU#v=onepage&q=alethophobia&f=false
Without looking, I’ll predict it’s a neologism—invented in the last ~25 years to apply to someone the inventor disagrees with. Yup, google n-grams shows 0 uses in any indexed book. A little more searching shows almost no actual uses anywhere—mostly automated dictionary sites that steal from each other, presumably with some that accept user submissions.
I did find one claim to invention, in 2017: http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/236053 . Oh, and earlier (2008), there’s a book with that title: https://www.amazon.com/Alethophobia-Manoucher-Parvin/dp/1588140474 .
I still submit that this is a word in search of a need, which mostly exists as a schoolyard insult dressed up in Latin.
Yea, I also found the claim, as well as a few results from old books before the claim. The name come straight from the Latin though, so isn’t that original or surprising.
Just because it hasn’t been used much before doesn’t mean we can’t start to use it and adjust the definition as we see fit. I want to see more and better terminology in this area.
> The name comes straight from the Latin though
From the Greek as it happens. Also, alethephobia would be a double negative, with a-letheia meaning a state of not being hidden; a more natural neologism would avoid that double negative. Also, the greek concept of truth has some differences to our own conceptualization. Bad neologism.
Ah, good to know. Do you have recommendations for other words?
The trend of calling things that aren’t fears “-phobia” seems to me a trend that’s harmful for clear communication. Adjusting the definition only leads to more confusion.
I think I want less terminology in this area, and generally more words and longer descriptions for things that need nuance and understanding. Dressing up insults as diagnoses doesn’t help any goals I understand, and jargon should only be introduced as part of much longer analyses where it illuminates rather than obscures.
Can you give examples of things you think would fit under this? It seems that there are lots of instances of being resistant to the truth, but I can think of very few that I would categorize as fear of truth. It’s often fear of something else (e.g. fear of changing your identity) or biases (e.g. the halo effect or consistency bias) that cause people to resist. I can think of very few cases where people have a general fear of truth.