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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... opinion , rather than private opinion , that undergirds political power . Private opinion may be highly unfa- vorable to a regime , policy ... private opinion is neither necessary nor sufficient for the Private Opinion , Public Opinion 57.
... opinion dramatically . Once a bandwagon gets under way , people cannot but notice that public opinion is changing . In self - interest , they become more alert to signals emanating from the wider community , and their reactions may ...
... opinion is 48 percent . There are two reasons why the degree of collective conser- vatism turns out greater in this case than in the previous one . First , 100 is farther away from 52 than is 20. This implies that people's memories of ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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