Private Truths, Public Lies (Harvard University Press)

Preference falsification, according to Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. In this book Kuran argues 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, he provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. Kuran argues that people's choices, and even their desires, are a function of social and psychological conditions and above all pressures imposed by other people.