May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics and Studies Exploit Our Biases - And What We Can Do About It - Hardcover

Edmans, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241630169 ISBN 13: 9780241630167

Publisher: Penguin Business, 2024

Synopsis

‘Alex Edmans is such a crisp, sharp salutary voice – and a great guide to the bullsh*t of the modern world’ Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge

'A powerful and punchy explanation of why misinformation is a problem that affects us all' Gillian Tett, Editor-at-Large, Financial Times

A ground-breaking book that reveals why our human biases affect the way we receive and interpret information, with practical suggestions for how to think more critically

* One of Adam Grant’s 8 New Idea Books to Start Spring*
* A Financial Times Book of the Month, April 2024*
* A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Book for May 2024*
* A Wall Street Journal recommended summer read 2024*

Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, business leaders, and best-selling 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, Alex Edmans, an economist and professor at London Business School, teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colourful examples – from a wellness guru’s tragic but fabricated backstory, to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and 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 take better decisions.

'A passionate and dispassionate call to truth – and how to achieve it - in a world of growing disinformation' Will Hutton, The Guardian

'Not only brilliantly researched and written but immensely practical' Andy Haldane, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England

'A timely book and, despite the nerdy statistical theories, is often quite funny' Harry Wallop, The Time

About this title

About the Author

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. His TED talk 'What to Trust in a Post-Truth World' has been viewed 2 million times. He has also spoken at Davos and Google. In 2013, he was awarded tenure at The Wharton School and in 2021, was named MBA Professor of the Year by Poets and Quants. Edmans writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Harvard Business Review. His first book Grow the Pie (Cambridge University Press) was a Financial Times Book of the Year.

From the Back Cover

Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, business leaders, and best-selling 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, Alex Edmans, an economist and professor at London Business School, teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colourful examples – from a wellness guru’s tragic but fabricated backstory, to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and 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 take better decisions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Business
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241630169
• ISBN 13: 9780241630167
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336