Review by Choice Review
A slightly less misleading title for this book might have been "How people make mistakes in thinking about many important public policy issues, especially those involving large numbers." That said, this is a modestly useful addition to the recent wave of books on error-prone minds. Readers should not expect a primer on types of errors and how to avoid them. Duffy (director, Policy Institute, King's College London) organizes the book by issues, including many important and timely ones on which many people hold incorrect views--issues such as economics, crime, EU policies, and so on. The dispositions that give rise to such errors are discussed along the way, though they are nowhere systematically summarized; the last chapter does at least have a list of suggestions for avoiding error. Most chapters include figures illustrating the results of multinational surveys showing how many people tend to guess certain "facts" incorrectly and, in some cases, how many other people in a country hold one view or another about such so-called facts. Summing Up: Optional. General readers. --Scott E. Forschler, independent scholar
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Duffy, Policy Institute director at King's College London, puts his 20 years of research into opinion formation to good use in this illuminating first book. Through cogent analysis, made accessible through charts and anecdotes, he thoroughly examines "general and widespread delusions about individual, social, and political realities." The book divides misperceptions into two categories: mistakes people make in their own thinking, and mistakes originating in what they are told by others, both by authority figures and the media, and by friends, family, and colleagues. Within these categories, Duffy's examples of things people often get wrong range from the trivial, such as whether the Great Wall of China is visible from space (it isn't), to the consequential, such as whether violent crime is on the rise (a single high-profile case can make people think it is, even when crime rates are actually declining). While addressing such well-known conceptual pitfalls as the inherent "bias toward information that confirms what we already believe," Duffy avoids pessimism. He focuses on the things everyone can do to change how they process information, such as learning not to focus on extreme examples, or improving critical reading abilities. The result is a well-informed breath of intellectual fresh air about how best to avoid misunderstanding the world. (Dec.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A British social scientist analyzes how we see the worldand why we're so often wrong about it.In this striking debut, Duffy (Director, Policy Institute/King's Coll. London) draws on global studies conducted by Ipsos MORI, a London social research firm where he was a managing director for 20 years, to describe the way people misperceive social realities, from teen pregnancy to crime, obesity, and immigration. The studies involved more than 100,000 interviews on many issues in 40 nations. They demonstrate, through solid data, that we only hear what we want to hear. In England, asked what percentage of British teens gave birth every year, people guessed 19% (correct answer: 1.4%). In France, people thought Muslims were 31% of the population (reality: 8%). In the U.S., people guessed immigrants make up 33% of the population (reality: 14%). And so on. "Our misperceptions are wide, deep, and long-standing," writes the author. Complex forces shape beliefs, most notably our emotional responses, which are key to our perception of reality. Driven by "preexisting beliefs and wishful thinking," our delusions are formed by "hardwired" biases and a tendency to seek information that reinforces our views. The latter includes news media whose penchant for negative stories leads many to think "everything is getting worse." "We not only have a built-in bias towards focusing on the vivid and threatening, we also tend to think things were better in the past, and therefore are worse now," writes Duffy, echoing Steven Pinker's argument in Enlightenment Now (2018). As a result, we are often "very wrong" about global trends. The author depressingly notes that it is "difficult to change people's delusions simply by giving them more information." There is no magic formula for encouraging more accurate perceptions, he writes; increased skepticism and awareness of our emotional thinking can help.An informative and readable guide to rational thinking in the present era. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
