Truth Telling Research Articles

Truth Telling and Reconciliation in the Pacific: Solomon Islands' Experience

Truth-telling was necessary as part of Solomon Islands’ reconciliation and peace-building process following the violent conflict between 1998 and 2003. When Solomon Islands gained constitutional independence from Great Britain in 1978, the architects of independence did not anticipate that the country would be embroiled in a violent conflict 20 years later. This conflict left the national economy in ruins, the nation-state on the verge of disintegration with law and order in disarray and an Australian-led Pacific Islands Forum regional intervention force was deployed in 2003. The Solomon Islands government later established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address the causes of the conflict and establish sustainable peace. From 2010 to 2012, the TRC facilitated a process of truth-telling that was seen as important to secure reconciliation and peace. The truth-telling process focused on the plight of the victims and perpetrators with limited focus on traumas that were generated due to factors such as governance, socio-economic issues, land alienation and displacement. This article will discuss transitional justice by paying attention to the role of the TRC and the effects that it produced. Given this context, the conversations around truth-telling should recognise the intersection between the colonially prescribed state and Indigenous expressions of sovereignty defined through socio-cultural relationships and protocols.

How universities can support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to achieve self-determination and improved wellbeing.

The right to self-determination is enshrined in international law, affirming Aboriginal people have the right to make decisions about matters that affect their lives, including meeting their social, political, cultural and economic needs. This paper explores the role of universities in supporting Aboriginal self-determination, including an examination of the importance of the social and cultural determinants of wellbeing and the impacts of assimilation on Aboriginal people’s ability to live in accord with cultural traditions. Insights into how universities can create more culturally appropriate learning environments are also reviewed with a particular focus on the fundamental differences between Western and Aboriginal culture, pedagogy, epistemology, ontology, and axiology. The paper suggests that by undertaking a process of truth telling, universities will be able to create improved learning and research environments for Aboriginal students and staff that better support self-determination. By doing this, universities will leverage their unique position of influence to create improved wellbeing for Aboriginal people and the nation as a whole. This is an invited article based on a HERDSA keynote address, which was presented at the 2024 conference held in Adelaide, 8-11 July. Dr Callaghan was also invited to provide a video introduction to the article. The video link may be found on the ASRHE journal site next to the link to the PDF.

Navigating Complexity: Spiritual Care Discourses Among Swedish Palliative Care Professionals.

Through discourse analysis of focus groups, this study investigates how palliative care professionals in Sweden engage with "spiritual care," "religion" and "spirituality." Our results reveal a common assumption that religion is "visible," but at the same time private. Furthermore, we observed a secular and nonreligious positioning, marked by frequent "us versus them" rhetoric, especially in discussions about truth telling. The findings illustrate a view of belonging to a secular society in which a discourse of static understanding of religion dominated, indicating a vague religious literacy. This study indicates a need among healthcare professionals to discern, understand and relate to non-visible forms of religion.

How men view stigma, shame, and blame in #MeToo

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined how men respond to #MeToo scenarios alongside perceptions of rape myths and gender equity. It examined social media post reactions of stigma, shame, fear repercussions, victim blaming, truth telling, and real assault belief.MethodsThe sample of 407 male survey participants responded to closed‐ and open‐ended questions in MTurk. Men responded to three #MeToo posts copied from Twitter, which included statements of sexual harassment and assault, to measure perceptions of stigmatization, shame, and victim blame. Variables also measured rape myth acceptance, gender equity ideals, and demographic variables such as race, ethnicity, employment, and relationship status.ResultsThe study demonstrated most men ascribed to rape myths and rape culture in their beliefs, but these beliefs usually did not lead directly to their written responses. The quantitative data showed men who accept rape myths also perceive victims as earning outcomes of shame, stigma, and blame. The qualitative data demonstrated most men supported victims’ posts sharing their #MeToo stories with few harmful, stigmatizing responses.ConclusionMen hold beliefs that might not lead to direct behaviors in responding to #MeToo posts. Additional research must be completed using other survey platforms to gain the male response to victim story sharing.

Structuring extra-classroom pedagogical partnership to support truth telling for equity and inclusion: Recommendations for practice.

Structuring extra-classroom pedagogical partnership to support truth telling for equity and inclusion: Recommendations for practice.

Yoorrook: truth telling in the Victorian Treaty process

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore this process through reviewing key reports and literature through an Indigenous standpoint lens. We identify three key challenges facing the Yoorrook Commission in its journey. First, the continued resistance of influential sections of the Australian community to look backwards and accept responsibility for the violence of the colonial project. Second, the trauma facing those who speak out and remember and the real danger of expectations dashed. Third, the continuance of the colonial pandemic and underlying and invisible racism that infects and poisons all Australians.Design/methodology/approachThis paper has drawn on key literature and secondary data through an Indigenous Lens.FindingsWe identify three challenges facing Yoorrook. First, the resistance of influential sections of the Australian community to accept responsibility for the violence of the colonial project. Second, the trauma facing those who speak out and remember and the danger of expectations dashed. Third, the continuance of underlying and invisible racism that infects and poisons the hearts and minds of non-Indigenous Australia. Despite these challenges we argue that the ability of Yoorrook to capture the lived experience of First Peoples in Victoria and the ability to hold key government officials to account presents a unique opportunity to advance the self determination of all First Peoples in Australia.Originality/valueThis is the first Treaty in Victoria and there has been no study of it before.

The Reparation Generation: Truth Telling in Pursuit of Racial Justice in the U.S.

The Reparation Generation: Truth Telling in Pursuit of Racial Justice in the U.S.

Putting Forward Sustainability as a Model for Journalism Education and Training

ABSTRACT African journalism practice presents unique opportunities and challenges that require journalists to be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, and values to engage in sustainable journalism. Training institutions play a critical role in ensuring that journalists are not only professionally-ready to execute their mandate but also that they can safeguard and promote ethical values in their everyday work. Some of these values include “truth telling, independence, objectivity, fairness, inclusivity and social justice” (Gade, Nduka, and Dastger 2017, 10). Africa, like other regions of the Global South, has several journalism training institutions that provide an opportunity to challenge “hegemonic epistemologies and ontologies of Western-centric journalism studies” (Mutsvairo et al. 2021, 993). In the context of this submission, the present study investigates the current state of sustainable journalism in Africa. We examined data based on a syllabi analysis of journalism programs in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana to appraise what role sustainable journalism education and training could play in Africa. Findings show that efforts are already in place across select learning and training institutions but also point to profound gaps in the curriculum, pedagogy and resources needed to prepare journalists for sustainable journalism.

The dual-process approach to human sociality: Meta-analytic evidence for a theory of internalized heuristics for self-preservation.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 126(5) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2025-05381-001). The last entry in the Roch et al. (2000) row in Table 3 should appear instead as load decreases taking. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Which social decisions are influenced by intuitive processes? Which by deliberative processes? The dual-process approach to human sociality has emerged in the last decades as a vibrant and exciting area of research. Yet a perspective that integrates empirical and theoretical work is lacking. This review and meta-analysis synthesizes the existing literature on the cognitive basis of cooperation, altruism, truth telling, positive and negative reciprocity, and deontology and develops a framework that organizes the experimental regularities. The meta-analytic results suggest that intuition favors a set of heuristics that are related to the instinct for self-preservation: people avoid being harmed, avoid harming others (especially when there is a risk of harm to themselves), and are averse to disadvantageous inequalities. Finally, this article highlights some key research questions to further advance our understanding of the cognitive foundations of human sociality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Trauma-heritage: towards a trauma-informed understanding of heritage

ABSTRACT Over the last 25 years, a number of concepts that broadly centre on human suffering, conflict, and death have developed and proliferated in heritage studies. As a ‘trauma and truth telling’ discourse is embraced globally, there is a marked increase in the recognition of heritage connected to trauma, suffering and tragedy. Yet, despite the breadth and depth of research in this space, psychological trauma has been largely unexamined in the field of heritage studies. Therefore in this interdisciplinary paper, we ask: what is trauma? What is the relationship between trauma and heritage? And what does it mean to be trauma-informed? We introduce the concept of trauma-informed heritage (TIH) and suggest that heritage connected to traumatic events can be conceived as trauma-heritage (TH). Together, the TIH and TH concepts shine a light on heritage connected to trauma, which is multiplex and multiscalar. We offer this framework to better acknowledge and understand trauma and critically explore the relationships between trauma and heritage. This frame will provide awareness of the impact of trauma on people in the wake of traumatic events and help mitigate the risk of re-traumatising, now and for the future.

“Do We Have to Tell Him He Hasn’t Been Getting Ativan?”: Truth Telling for a Patient with Nonepileptic Seizures

The authors present a case study involving truth telling responsibilities in the setting of nonepileptic seizures. Specifically, over the course of several suspected nonepileptic seizures, a patient’s seizures stopped after he received a saline flush meant to precede the administration of anti-seizure medication. The patient and his surrogate believed he had received the medication each time, and the team wondered whether they should disclose the truth. Some worried that disclosure would reinforce the suspected psychogenic behavior, exacerbating the patient’s condition. In this way, the case study presents a twist on the traditional truth telling archetype. While most truth telling cases center on navigating cultural differences or worries about emotional harm, this case presented concerns about medical harm in the form of exacerbating the patient’s condition. The authors describe the complex patient-family-team dynamic that preceded this ethical dilemma, describe the case, analyze the ethical issue, and describe the outcome.

In bed with the state

The aim of this paper is to unsettle dominant discourses about the state and forensic social work though “dehistoricization” through two historical case studies from Canada: the eugenics movement and the Indian Act. This critical and structural analysis will demonstrate how the state historically and contemporarily disproportionately disadvantages disabled and Indigenous peoples independently and intersectionally through social control tactics. Using a conceptual framework from Foucault’s History of the Present approach, I problematize how historical practices manifest in present-day technologies of the state. I also utilized Blackstock’s Touchstones of Hope, a model for reconciliation in children’s services through four phases: Truth Telling, Acknowledging, Restoring, and Relating. After situating myself in the work, I will then articulate the key concepts including forensic social work, the state, intersectionality, and settler colonialism followed by the dominant historical discourses in forensic social work. Next, I dehistoricize the eugenics movement and the Indian Act as case studies to demonstrate how the state used and uses social control tactics of surveillance, categorization, segregation, and containment of disabled and Indigenous peoples. Contemporary forensic social work practices with disabled and Indigenous peoples will demonstrate that the historical practices continue in the present. I conclude with a call for reconciliation and transformative change.

How to go from storytelling to fact telling and still sell products, ideas and hope

We exist now in what can sometimes feel like an alternative universe, where fake news headlines go viral, algorithmic bias targets us with content that is popular and engaging but not necessarily trustworthy, chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence and deepfake video technology runs amok. The global rise of misinformation and the decline of consumer trust in both government and media have coincided with technological advances and tarnished demand for brand strategists’ old tricks. One of these is storytelling. Now, if you are a brand that is being even a little disingenuous with your communications today, then to some you may as well be a bald-faced liar. Instead, regardless of the industry, whether B2B or consumer, brands today should be in the business of fact telling. At stake are a business’ reputation, customer loyalty and the bottom line. Furthermore, it is up to us to help ensure that the information environment does not deteriorate further on our watch. The most exciting thing a brand can do today is to be audaciously authentic. But have we forgotten how to be? Moreover, can we tell the truth and still get consumers to add our products to their shopping carts, become brand advocates and loyalists and even learn to trust again? Within, we outline a framework for brands to meaningfully differentiate with truth telling.

School Choice with Consent: an Experiment

Abstract Public school choice often yields student assignments that are neither fair nor efficient. The efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism allows students to consent to waive priorities that have no effect on their assignments. A burgeoning recent literature places the efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism at the centre of the trade-off between efficiency and fairness in school choice. Meanwhile, the Flemish Ministry of Education has taken the first steps to implement this algorithm in Belgium. We provide the first experimental evidence on the performance of the efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism against the celebrated deferred acceptance mechanism. We find that both efficiency and truth-telling rates are higher under the efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism than under the deferred acceptance mechanism, even though the efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism is not strategy proof. When the priority waiver is enforced, efficiency further increases, while truth-telling rates decrease relative to variants of the efficiency-adjusted deferred acceptance mechanism where students can dodge the waiver. Our results challenge the importance of strategy proofness as a prerequisite for truth telling and portend a new trade-off between efficiency and vulnerability to preference manipulation.

The effect of lying on memory in daily life: Does motivation matter?

Recently, there has been renewed interest in the effect of lying on memory. A growing body of studies has documented that lying can impair memories and cause memory disruptions, such as forgetting and false memories, to a greater degree than telling the truth. This study aimed to investigate whether motivation plays a role in the effect of lying on memory. The present study utilized a daily life paradigm and manipulated three conditions: truth telling, internally motivated lying, and externally motivated lying. We asked participants to engage in a shopping task and to tell lies (externally motivated lying group) or to choose between telling the truth (truth-telling group) and telling lies (internally motivated lying group) in the interview. Forty-eight hours later, the participants were instructed to truthfully carry out multiple memory assessments. The principal findings of this research are that lying can result in memory impairments, and internally motivated lying can lead to greater impairment in source memory than externally motivated lying. Moreover, no significant differences between the two lying groups were found in the memory tests. The empirical findings of this study provide new insights into the effect of lying on memory.

Recognition beyond recognition!

This essay focuses on the subject position of settler colonizers to interpret the developing global politics of Indigenous recognition in the settler societies and in Australia in particular. It focuses on the dynamics of recognition in the specific context of Indigenous–settler relations, on the contribution settlers may make to decolonial passages, on the ways perpetrator trauma shapes the settler colonial polity, and on the role truth telling and creative shame may play in overcoming the resulting impasse.

Reducing racism in education: embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum

This paper begins with a discussion of a program of work to map and embed Indigenous perspectives at RMIT University, outlines issues relating to the uptake of its guiding principles and actions, and then proposes a rethinking of the work. The authors argue that non-Indigenous educators are often ill equipped to undertake curriculum deconstruction or review. They lack a comprehensive understanding of colonial history, truth telling, racism, and the impact of power dynamics, with its institutional privileging of whiteness. It is often only with this foundational knowledge that staff are positioned to undertake curriculum analysis and ensure that their teaching environments are culturally safe. While this paper is case specific, the original project and the reconsideration of behaviours and actions are relevant to all educational institutions facing similar stumbling blocks when it comes to informing educators in the knowledge and capabilities required to include Indigenous perspectives in curricula and to create safe teaching environments.

Let’s Talk LMCC (S01E03): Legal, Ethical and Organizational Aspects of Medicine - Consent, Truth Telling and Negligence

Welcome to the McGill Journal of Medicine (MJM) Let’s Talk LMCC Review. This podcast series was created to aid medical students studying for the Canadian Medical Council (MCC)’s licensing exam. Each episode is created based on specific LMCC objectives and is divided into two sections. In Section 1 we provide an overview of the topic with the help of experts in the field, followed by Section 2 where we review LMCC styled questions to help consolidate knowledge. In this episode, we welcome our expert advisor, Dr. Carolyn Ells, a recently retired Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill, based at the Biomedical Ethics Unit, to speak on LMCC Objectives 121-1 Consent, 121-2 Truth Telling, and 121-3 Negligence. This episode was written by MJM Podcast Team members Amanda Sears and Esther Kang and Dr. Carolyn Ells.

A haunting past: British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism

This article examines historical fictions as social processes by which ideas about conflict and warfare are constructed and narrated within society. Focusing on Britain, it explores ‘truth telling’ about the past in an applied context, examining efforts to construct and sustain narratives about Britain’s military past and their role in upholding forms of political and societal consensus that underpin the development and use of military power. We offer a typology of the ways in which Western liberal states shape and mobilise historical fictions within their distinctive forms of militarism and civil-military relations: ‘Telling Stories’—curating and sustaining social understandings of military power through public displays, museums, and ceremonies; ‘Hiding Pasts’—using state power to shape academic research and to occlude aspects of the military past; and ‘Knowing War’—legitimating the state and armed forces’ claims to a monopoly of authoritative knowledge about war and security.

Surgeon Perspectives on Daily Presentation of Ethical Dilemmas: A Qualitative Study.

Surgeons encounter and navigate a unique set of ethical dilemmas. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) previously identified 6 core ethical issues central to the practice of surgery, but there have been no reports of the true range and complexity of ethical dilemmas encountered by surgeons in their daily practice. Qualitative research is well positioned to address this question. We conducted in-depth interviews with attending surgeons across multiple surgical subspecialties at a large, urban, academic medical center asking them to describe the most common ethical dilemmas they encounter in day-to-day practice. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded according to a grounded theory, inductive approach. Thirty attending surgeons were interviewed, representing twelve different general surgery subspecialties. The majority of dilemmas identified pertained to 4 of the 6 ACS identified core ethical issues: professional obligations, competition of interests, truth telling, and end-of-life care. No participants described dilemmas relating to the themes of confidentiality or surrogate decision-making. Approximately one-third of participants identified ethical issues not well characterized by the ACS core principles, most often relating to the pressure to provide care that is not medically indicated. There was strong support for a formalized surgical ethics curriculum. Although the ACS-defined core ethical issues in surgery appropriately captured many ethical dilemmas identified by participants, surgeons described several scenarios not well characterized by these themes. A dedicated surgical ethics curriculum may help to better equip surgeons to navigate the ethical dilemmas they are likely to face in practice.