Why we're wrong about nearly everything : a theory of human misunderstanding /
Smartphones shorten our attention spans and Twitter devalues critical thought. Fake news runs rampant on Facebook, clouding our perceptions. The internet has made us dumb, right? In fact, people don't need the internet to get things wrong. Bobby Duffy, a leading public policy researcher, ran a...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Basic Books,
2019.
|
| Edition: | First US edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Smartphones shorten our attention spans and Twitter devalues critical thought. Fake news runs rampant on Facebook, clouding our perceptions. The internet has made us dumb, right? In fact, people don't need the internet to get things wrong. Bobby Duffy, a leading public policy researcher, ran a study of how people's beliefs match reality. It was the largest of its kind, spanning a decade and more than forty countries. He found that we have no idea what we're talking about when it comes to our most important social issues. American women are sexually harassed at nearly twice the rate American men think, the English overestimate Great Britain's immigrant population by 54 percent, Mexicans believe unemployement rates are ten times higher than they are in reality. Our delusions hold regardless of race, age, sex or education and, on many issues, occur at roughly the same rates as they have for decades. In other words, we have always misunderstood how the world actually works, and those misunderstandings shape the cultures and policies we live by. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | "Originally published in 2018 by Atlantic Books in Great Britain"--Title page verso. |
| Physical Description: | 296 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781541618084 1541618084 |