Falsification of preferences
The idea of the falsification of preferences is part of the social scientist Timur Kuran's book Life in Lies. Preference distortions and their social consequences formulated theory about the social influence of publicly declared preferences. It is the basis of his theory of how unforeseen revolutions can come about. It has to do with the ideas of social evidence and election blindness . The theory is that individuals express preferences that are inconsistent with their real preferences.
Original wording
According to theory, when individuals express their preferences, they often adjust them to what appears socially acceptable. In other words, their publicly stated preferences do not match their real preferences. Kuran calls this misrepresentation "falsification of preferences". In his 1995 book Life in Lies. He explains that distortions of preferences and their social consequences are ubiquitous and the cause of far-reaching social and political effects. These effects are all based on the interdependence of the decisions of individuals about which preferences they publicly declare. A person who withholds disagreement with a fashion, policy, or form of government makes it all the more difficult for others to express disagreement.
The falsification of preferences has the socially significant consequence that social conditions find broad public support that would be rejected by a decisive majority in a secret ballot. In the private sphere, unpopular relationships can endure for an indefinite period of time because individuals reproduce social pressure to conform through individually expressed falsification of preferences.
By falsifying their preferences, individuals hold back the knowledge on which their preferences are based. They distort, corrupt and reduce publicly available knowledge and make it more difficult for others to find out about the disadvantages of existing relationships and the merits of alternatives. As a consequence, the falsification of preferences leads to widespread ignorance about the advantages of change. Over long periods of time, the distortion of preferences can reduce a community's ability to desire change by leading to mental constriction and ossification.
The first of these consequences is caused by individuals' need for social affirmation, the second by mutual dependency in obtaining information.
Kuran applied these observations to various contexts. He has his in life in lying. The theory developed by the distortion of preferences and their societal consequences is used as an explanation of why major political upheavals take place surprisingly, how ethnic conflicts sustain themselves, why India's caste system has been a strong political force for millennia, and why actually minor risks sometimes trigger mass hysteria .
Scientific Research
Kuran has published several articles on the subject of falsification of preferences (his book Leben in Lehmen. Falsification of preferences and their social consequences is based on these publications).
The idea of falsifying preferences was taken up by other social scientists. The economist Robert H. Frank has reviewed Timur Kuran's book and contributed his own thoughts on the political economy of preference corruption. The journalist William Davis examined the distortion of preferences within economics.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Timur Kuran: Living in Lies. Preference distortions and their social consequences . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-16-146424-9 .
- ↑ Timur Kuran: Private Truths, Public Lies . Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1995.
- ↑ Timur Kuran: The tenacious past: Theories of personal and collective conservatism . In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , 10, 1988, 2, pp. 143-171, doi: 10.1016 / 0167-2681 (88) 90043-1
- ^ Robert Frank: The Political Economy of Preference Falsification: Timur Kuran's Private Truths, Public Lies . In: Journal of Economic Literature . 34, No. 1, 1996, pp. 115-123.
- ^ William Davis: Preference Falsification in the Economics Profession . In: Econ Journal Watch . 1, No. 2, 2004, pp. 359-368. Retrieved March 16, 2018.