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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... observation , one needs to recognize that French citizens did not vote directly on taxation or , for that matter , on any other issue . They went to the polls to choose representatives authorized to vote on the issues of the day ...
... observation , inference , and analysis . To conserve cognitive resources we rely also on social proof . The beliefs we adopt through social proof can be substantially biased , however , if only because we do not dif- ferentiate ...
... observation might admit more than one explanation . Take my claim that Ameri- cans refrain from criticizing ... observing private opinion , it is possible to identify the " ob- jective conditions " for revolution.23 If this is true , his ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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