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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... social proof.26 If a great many people think in a particular way , they must know something we ourselves do not - as in the maxim " two heads are better than one . " The basis of our own judgment becomes that " everyone knows " what is ...
... social proof may cause it to spread and strengthen . The Politics of Persuasion : Appeals to Social Proof Conscious of the possibility of turning private knowledge , and thus private opinion , in favor of their agendas merely through social ...
... social proof . Suppose I con- sider a program optimal because this is the conventional wisdom . My mind is not going to change simply because of a contrary scholarly finding . Since I ignore the pertinent scholarly literature , the ...
Contents
Collective Conservatism | 105 |
The Obstinacy of Communism | 118 |
The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System | 128 |
Copyright | |
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