US political rhetoric: Analysis of 8 million speeches shows increased reliance on personal beliefs over facts

Discussion of “alternative facts” has gained sad notoriety in US politics. Yet the question has been around much longer: How do people conduct political debates—is the focus more on facts or personal opinions? In the journal Nature Human Behaviour, a team of international researchers led by the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” looked into the matter.

This article is brought to you by Phys.Org.