Private Truths, Public Lies : The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification
Editorial Reviews
Review
Thomas C. Schelling, University of Maryland at College Park : Kuran is the leading pioneer in examining the harsh and the subtle ways in which we are induced to deceive our public, our acquaintances, and eventyally ourselves about the issues that matter most in our lives or in our careers. His insight is always persuasive, sometimes stunning. A very careful book.
Jack Hirshleifer, University of California, Los Angeles : This fascinating book analyzes a topic almost never considered by economists, how social pressures modify choices among publicly visible actions. In particular, expressed "public opinion" may be unrepresentative of actual private beliefs, so a minor shock can easily set a bandwagon in motion. Thus political and social equilibria are far more fragile than is usually believed. In fact, almost all great revolutions have been more or less total surprises. The author's applications of the model--to the caste system in India, to the downfall of communism, and (unexpectedly!) to the affirmative action juggernaut in the United States--are gripping, insightful, and (with regard to the last issue) courageous.
Richard A. Epstein, University of Chicago : Timur Kuran explores the devastating consequences to political discourses that derive from the simple unwillingness of intelligent individuals to say publicly what they believe privately. The United States may have constitutional guarantees for freedom of speech that were nowhere to be found in communist societies. But the eerie parallels that Kuran draws between the persistence of communism in Eastern Europe and the persistence of affirmative action at home should give even skeptical readers pause about the ability of our legal institutions to promote candid discussion of the major political issues of our times.
Book Description
Preference 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.
A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change.
In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency.
Private Truths, Public Lies uses its theoretical argument to illuminate an array of puzzling social phenomena. They include the unexpected fall of communism, the paucity, until recently, of open opposition to affirmative action in the United States, and the durability of the beliefs that have sustained India's caste system.
Private Truths, Public Lies : The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification
Private Truths, Public Lies : The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification,Timur Kuran,Harvard University Press,0674707583,Business/Economics,Economics - General,Social Science,Sociology,Sociology - General,Business & Economics / Economics / General
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