With his Two Steps Ahead video, Perry reveals he was actively deceiving his followers in a supposed social experiment in which he monitored his viewers like “ants on an ant farm”:
In the “post-truth” era, most people expect some dishonesty on the internet. But what’s particularly interesting is how people also excuse – and therefore condone – misinformation, despite recognising it as false.
According to researchers, misinformation seems less unethical to us when it aligns with our own politics – and our willingness to give certain falsehoods a “moral pass” is why politicians can blatantly lie without damaging their image.
The fact Perry’s deception was rooted in his drastic weight loss – something viewers had urged him to do for years – might help explain why it hasn’t backfired for him and his image.
