Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference FalsificationPreference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. |
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... approved preferences to act , that is , like chameleons . The settings are all ones in which people's social standing depends on their professed disposi- tions . Preference falsification produces two categories of effects . First ...
... approval of people who have made the same choice and disapproval of people who have made other choices . On abortion , for instance , individuals representing themselves as prochoice will greet the prochoice statements of others with ...
... approval of her peers , she may be hard - pressed to find a satisfying justification . What if she had been candid , and her peers went no further than to frown ? Her dissonance will be greater , therefore , than in the former situation ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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