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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... choice effectively involves a weighing of several preferences , meriting the des- ignation of " collective . " My choice is not strictly collective , however , because my own public preference is decisive to the outcome . Whether the ...
... Choice Social scientists who do recognize the uses of explicit theorizing are divided on the social significance of individual choice and social struc- ture . On one side are " rationalists , " " behaviorists , " and " individu- alists ...
... choice does not have abso- lute priority , because social constraints may make the outcome of a choice process practically a foregone conclusion . For decades , Ro- manians had the option of protesting against repression , but only at ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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