Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything (2019)

"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 40 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 10 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" -- Front jacket flap.