These situations reveal the true preference toward status over accuracy: People would rather make an effort to preserve their status than to admit having made a mistake.

There are domains where playing games like this will cause you to lose even more status.

However, there are other domains where being loud and denying reality can actually preserve your status: If people are too tired, afraid, or avoidant to challenge the denial then eventually it becomes more or less accepted fact. This is a common feature of toxic work environments, where denying facts or trying to dictate reality can actually work in someone’s favor because the cost of disagreeing with that person is too high.

You see this in bad CEOs who get caught in scandals and then think they can talk their way out of it by writing flowery statements and going on social media to respin the story. These tactics work when you’re preaching to people whose jobs depend on accepting the things you tell them, but they fall apart in the court of public opinion where people have nothing to lose by doubting you.