There Are Heroes and Villains: Modern Myth-making and Disinformation
Operation Mincemeat.
What a name.
It sounds like a terrible tactic. Like a strategy cooked up in the corners of wartime desperation. For those unfamiliar, it was a daring act of deception during World War II. This deception based operation was where fake documents were planted on a corpse to mislead the Nazis about Allied invasion plans.
Essentially, it was a lie.
And it worked damn well.
Good movie too.
Whilst it’s an example of deception being used for good, it’s far from the only one. Nor is it always so noble in intent. The most potent disinformation doesn’t rely on outright lies as it spins stories. But at its very center is a framework that all of us are deeply familiar with.
Heroes and Villains.
Heroes embody the ideals we cherish. They’re brave, righteous, and relatable. Villains, on the other hand, personify everything we fear or despise. They threaten our values, our safety, and our identity. By framing issues, disinformation simplifies the messy complexity of the real world into narratives that feel intuitive.
Even primal.
Have a look at the divisive rhetoric in politics. One side paints their leaders as saviors of freedom, while casting their opponents as existential threats. It turns out, there are always heroes and villains in the design of their stories. They design these emotionally charged stories, play on all emotions, and eventually bypass critical thinking and leverage impulsive emotion.
Disinformation aims not only to deceive, as it aims to define who we are and who we’re against. Often, someone else does this in their own interest. It uses the same storytelling techniques as mythology, but its consequences are far more insidious.
Because we act on it.
The Nature Of Disinformation
Spreading false information is only one aspect of disinformation, as the other big part is telling stories. There are also heroes and villains, just as in any story. Every time a false news piece or conspiracy theory becomes popular, it’s because it appeals to a compelling narrative. It is a part of who we are.
At its core, disinformation leverages the principles of all storytelling.
Every effective narrative needs a conflict, characters, and a resolution. Or at least, hope of a resolution. It’s rare that we have a deep engagement with a narrative when it's done, but when it's happening? Well, that's technically engagement.
Disinformation weaponizes this framework by casting clear roles. We have heroes who are defenders of “truth” and villains who are the enemy. So, pick a side and fight the fight. This structure resonates because we are hard-wired to think in stories.
Often we are in stories we do not realise.
Cognitive psychology shows that narratives are easier to remember and more persuasive than raw facts. They simplify complexity, which is exactly where disinformation thrives. More crucially, facts often emerge after the narratives settle.
By sowing doubt and amplifying divisions, disinformation lays the groundwork. It is then that we can end up in a fractured reality, where consensus becomes impossible. Often, this is done with time. During the Cold War, Soviet “active measures” aimed not only to spread propaganda but also to slowly influence the cultural and political fabric of rival nations.
Disinformation aims to change narratives and influence collective memory in the digital era. By waiting and buying time, this technique guarantees that its effects last long after the original falsehood is told.
What distinguishes disinformation from common lies is its long-term goal and overall intent. People design disinformation to distort perceptions gradually, which weakens the line between reality and fiction. Disinformation campaign designers frequently use strong emotional connection with the target population to change what they want to change.
Heroes and Villains
The “heroes and villains” mechanism in disinformation works. It's so good as it taps into our natural inclination to understand the world through narratives. Often this hinges on clear moral dichotomies. Since we humans are storytellers by nature, we instinctively gravitate toward tales where good triumphs over evil.
Disinformation leverages this psychological bias by telling the same story. This frame work is something we see this in nearly every book, film, and video game. It works because it is our own nature to simplify the complexities of morality in order to conquer them.
However, disinformation takes advantage of that.
The “heroes and villains” framework simplifies problems and provides an emotionally fulfilling sensation, but typically inaccurate explanation. For example, misinformation portrayed some people as villains during the COVID-19 outbreak. Anti-maskers or vaccination skeptics were the courageous truth-seekers fighting against a conspiracy by public health officials and scientists to mislead the public. These roles provide emotional clarity, giving people someone to idolize and someone to scapegoat. But the reality is far more nuanced than good verus evil.
This framework is so simple that weaponised mobilization is downstream from this.
The creation of heroes and villains also plays into confirmation bias. Narratives that support people’s preconceived notions have a higher chance of being believed.
Much higher.
This is apparent during election seasons. Political deception frequently presents the opposition as dangerous or corrupt and one party or leader as the savior. These narratives push ideological gaps by reiterating preexisting biases.
Cognitive Biases
Humans have a tendency to ignore information that challenges their preconceived notions. Actually, we tend to rebel against information that challenges our preconceived notions. We look for evidence to support over own views. The heroes and villains' framework takes advantage of this bias.
For example, people who already have a mistrust of a political institution are more likely to believe a disinformation story that portrays that institution as the bad guy who has to be stopped.
This prejudice makes people view members of their group as good (heroes) and outsiders as evil (villains). Disinformation narratives frequently depict “villains” as the elite, foreign, or “other,” while “heroes” are portrayed as relatable or members of the “in-group”.
This cognitive bias makes people attribute others’ negative actions to inherent flaws in their character rather than external circumstances. Now this might be true sometimes, but it's not as often as we perceive it to be. The heroes and villains framework directly affects storytelling by making narratives more emotionally compelling and easier to remember. Storylines based on this duality are straightforward, but they eliminate nuance. According to Jerome Bruner, a cognitive researcher, “stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone.” This simplicity helps them stick in the mind.
This approach adds a dimension of emotional intensity to the misleading setting. Stories about a hero battling a powerful foe inspire feelings of wrath, rage, or hope. These feelings encourage amplification through action. This behavior is older than social media, as it was also present in ancient Rome.
Additionally, the framework gives audiences a sense of agency and purpose. People are drawn to narratives where they can “take a side,” often aligning themselves with the hero and against the villain. This identification strengthens the story’s impact, making it harder for factual corrections to break through.
After all, no one wakes up in the morning saying to themselves, “today, I will be the bad guy.”
Simplifying Complex Issues into Digestible Stories
Because of this framework, disinformation is very good at simplifying complex issues.
Honestly, it is unfair at how good it is.
Climate change, for instance, is a deeply complex issue involving a lot of fields. This include science, policy, economics, and ethics. Sheesh, the list keeps going. Yet, disinformation campaigns often frame this as a battle between environmentally conscious “heroes” (activists or certain governments) and “villains” (corporations or political leaders).
Or the other way round, depending on how it's formed.
Even audiences who are not familiar with the depth may understand these stories because of their reductionist approach. Simple, linear narratives are more appealing to our minds than complex, multifaceted ones. Why? Because it is so much easier.
Disinformation tales often employ fear and rage to evoke urgency and indignation. Heroes provide a beam of hope, while villains are presented as existential dangers. In this situation, hope is about mobilization rather than resolution. The goal is to persuade a group to do something they wouldn’t often do.
Disinformation also leverages group identity, reinforcing tribal divisions. Myths surrounding heroes and villains often align with existing ideological or cultural divides. It makes them more credible to specific audiences. Often these are called false narratives. For example, during election cycles, disinformation might portray one political party as the hero of democracy and the other as its destroyer. These narratives strengthen in-group loyalty while deepening suspicion and hostility toward the out-group.
Further down stream is a change that may not be great for the group that actioned it.
But real life is not like the movies
In reality, the heroes and villains framework oversimplifies a world far more complex than any screenplay or fairytale. Reality doesn’t follow story arcs, and most people or issues can’t be boxed into good or evil. But disinformation thrives on this reductionism. It preys on our craving for clarity and our fear of uncertainty.
But this craving can be dangerous.
Or rather… it is dangerous.
Understanding how disinformation works is the first step. By questioning the narrative we’re presented with, looking beyond the surface, and seeking the nuances over absolutes, we might be okay.
But, the world isn’t black and white. It’s a spectrum of grays, full of imperfect heroes and misunderstood villains.
After all, no one actively chooses to be a villain in their own story.
