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Adam Grant’s “8 New Idea Books to Start Spring”
Next Big Idea Club's Must-Read Books for May 2024
"A wonderful litany of the myriad ways in which we can be deceived, and deceive ourselves."—The Guardian
"Entertaining, thorough and full of current examples. . . . It’s excellent." —The Wall Street Journal
How our biases cause us to fall for misinformation—and how to combat it.
Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, executives, and authors. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, allowing people to find evidence to support whatever position they want. Many of these sources are flawed, yet by playing on our emotions and preying on our biases, they can gain widespread acceptance, warp our views, and distort our decisions.
In this eye-opening book, renowned economist Alex Edmans teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colorful examples—from a wellness guru’s tragic but fabricated backstory to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the diet that ensnared millions yet hastened its founder’s death—Edmans highlights the biases that cause us to mistake statements for facts, facts for data, data for evidence, and evidence for proof.
Armed with the knowledge of what to guard against, he then provides a practical guide to combat this tide of misinformation. Going beyond simply checking the facts and explaining individual statistics, Edmans explores the relationships between statistics—the science of cause and effect—ultimately training us to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. May Contain Lies is an essential read for anyone who wants to make better sense of the world and better decisions.
"Entertaining, thorough and full of current examples. . . . It’s excellent."
"Confirmation bias can seem so engrained in us that it's difficult to shake. But Edmans highlights how first recognizing our biases and then taking small but intentional steps to overcome them can have an outsized effect on the quality of our decisions."
"A clear-headed guide to the exaggerations, sloppy research and the occasional downright lies peddled by companies, universities, authors and Ted Talk gurus. . . . Edmans is determined to make us better, more critical thinkers."
"Edmans might believe that we’re post truth, but he also proposes that it is in everyone’s grasp to become smarter thinkers."
"Edmans is out to help us better understand and analyse the data we are fed, and to aid us in becoming more sceptical. . . . The appendix (“a checklist for smarter thinking”) should be required reading."
"Shows us how to be more discerning with evidence. . . . Is a statement a fact, is a fact truly data, is that data genuinely evidence, and is that evidence proof? The book provides tips for sussing that out."
“A practical-minded approach to various forms of mangled logic, appeals to bogus authority and other commonplace forms of cognitive distortion. . . . Besides identifying the problem, the author offers clearly formulated approaches to countering it. Every high school freshman should take a one-semester course with this as its textbook.”
"Elegantly structured around an ascent up the ladder of ‘misinference.' "
"May Contain Lies is focused on identifying what is and isn’t reliable information. In a time when it feels like we are surrounded by more and more sources of misinformation and disinformation, this is certainly a welcome lesson."
"While written for a general audience, May Contain Lies is also valuable for educators teaching college courses on misinformation, causal inference, or critical reasoning about social and behavioral science, and would serve as an excellent resource for a freshman seminar."
Introduction
PART I: THE BIASES
1. Confirmation Bias
2. Black- and- White Thinking
PART II: THE PROBLEMS
3. A Statement is Not Fact
4. A Fact is Not Data
5. Data is Not Evidence: Data Mining
6. Data is Not Evidence: Causation
7. When Data is Evidence
8. Evidence is Not Proof
PART III: THE SOLUTION
9. Thinking Smarter as Individuals
10. Creating Organizations that Think Smarter
11. Creating Societies that Think Smarter
Appendix: A Checklist for Smarter Thinking
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index