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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... percent × 20 ) + ( 40 percent × 100 ) = 52 . Turn now to panel C , where this calculation is used to quantify the role of history in holding public opinion at 20. If the propagation curve stays fixed after the equilibrium gets ...
... percent to 11 percent ; the corresponding black ratio fell even more , 10 percent to 6 percent.30 The primary reason for the adoption of affirmative action programs was black poverty . As an answer to poverty , these figures suggest ...
... percent who favored " social ownership of the means of production . " 3 Similarly , a 1985 survey of Hungarians un- covered broad dissatisfaction with various specific policies . Sixty - three percent characterized housing as poor , and ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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