# Truth Decay **Domain:** Epistemology / Public institutions **Doc Type:** Developed Framework Node **Maturity:** Developed **Collection:** [[collections/Gamification|Gamification Collection]] ## Definition **Truth Decay** is RAND's framework for four interrelated trends: growing disagreement about facts and analytical interpretations, blurring of opinion and fact, increasing relative volume and influence of opinion over fact, and declining trust in institutions formerly treated as factual authorities. ## Significance Truth Decay names an environmental condition rather than a single deception campaign. It helps distinguish long-term degradation of shared adjudication from the immediate tactics of propaganda, disinformation, or perception management. Within the gamification framework, a population that cannot agree on the scoreboard, referee, evidence rules, or even whether the contest exists becomes vulnerable to endless replay and identity-based scoring. The framework remains descriptive; competing explanations for institutional distrust and factual disagreement require evidence rather than being folded automatically into manipulation. ## Sources - RAND Corporation, [Truth Decay](https://www.rand.org/research/projects/truth-decay.html) - Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich, [*Truth Decay*](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2314.html) ## Routes [[wiki/Firehose of Falsehood|Firehose of Falsehood]] · [[wiki/Epistemic Injury|Epistemic Injury]] · [[wiki/Testimonial Injustice|Testimonial Injustice]] · [[articles/The Right to Know Reality|The Right to Know Reality]]