On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done [Hardcover]

Cass R. Sunstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0809094738 | ISBN-13: 978-0809094738 | Publication Date: September 29, 2009 | Edition: First Edition

Many of us are being misled. Claiming to know the “pals” of presidential aspirants, dark secrets about public officials, and hidden causes of the current economic crisis, those who spread rumors know precisely what they are doing. They are sometimes able to derail political candidates, injure companies and reputations, even damage democratic governance. And in the era of the Internet, they know more about manipulating the mechanics of false rumors—social cascades, group polarization, and biased assimilation—than you do. They also know that the presumed correctives—publishing balanced information, issuing corrections, and trusting to the marketplace of ideas—do not always work.

 

A pioneer in the effort “to design regulation around the ways people behave” (The Wall Street Journal), Cass R. Sunstein uses examples from the real world and from behavioral studies to explain why certain rumors spread like wildfire and what we can do to avoid being misled.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The coauthor of the bestselling Nudge continues his quest to gently reclaim human nature from its dysfunctional proclivities in this slender treatise on a slight problem. Sunstein, a legal scholar and Office of Management and Budget adviser, insists that false rumors are a real scourge, now made exponentially direr by the Internet's facility in disseminating them. Rumors, Sunstein says, can cause financial panics and undermine democracy itself by fueling unfounded suspicions of leaders and institutions. He buttresses this thesis with a laborious exposition of the psychology of rumormongering, delving into experiments that prove, among other truisms, that people tend to believe rumors that gibe with their preconceptions. Sunstein's alarmism seems unfounded—are rumors really more threatening today than in the pre-Internet dark ages when they sparked pogroms?—and the book feels like a padded-out magazine article, climaxing in a few unobjectionable but underwhelming proposals to modestly tighten up libel law. The intellectual turf he has staked out, bounded by law, social regulation and pop psychology, seems played out—so perhaps he should let it lie fallow awhile. (Sept.)
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Review

“With clear examples and lucid arguments, On Rumors couldn’t come at a better time in the country’s increasingly divisive—and deceptive—public discourse.” —Seed

 

“Time spent in reading this author’s views is a profitable investment. The reader may view rumors differently afterward.” —Aaron Klein, World Net Daily

 

“Cass Sunstein has written a crisp, provocative book on a worrying problem—the susceptibility of our electronified society to base rumors. He convincingly shows that the constitutional marketplace of ideas does not solve the problem.” —Anthony Lewis

 

“It often seems that rumors are the one element that can travel faster than the speed of light. In On Rumors, Cass Sunstein helps us understand their incredible appeal, their power, and their dangers. A fun-tastic book.” —Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics, Duke University, and author of Predictably Irrational

 

“Truth doesn’t always win in the marketplace of ideas. Lies spread too. Cass Sunstein explains why and he outlines what, in a world of Facebook, tabloids, and blogs, we ought to do about it.” —Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809094738
• ISBN-13: 978-0809094738
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The other reviews given for this book prove Sunstein's point, February 15, 2010

By 

B. Bober (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done (Hardcover)

The emotionally charged polarized reviews on Amazon for this book are quite entertaining and surprising, and corroborate his section on "The Importance of Prior Conviction" (p 16-21). This book is definitely worth an hour of your time and it shouldn't require much more than that. I'd encourage anyone to read the first half of the book (just over 40 pages) and skip or skim read the rest. Whether that is worth $10 is debatable.

Pros:
* The information in this book can be covered by the reader in 1-2 hours
* Clearly and succinctly covers common problems of group decision making
1. Information Cascades (p 21-8)
2. Conformity Cascades (p 28-32)
3. Group Polarization (p 32-42)

Cons:
* This book is only 88 pages; the second half is largely forgettable
* His coverage of Biases (p 42-57) is disappointing
* His tentatively proposed solutions are insightful, but still very much a work in progress

I think Nudge is a better book - if for nothing else because you also get Thaler's input - but similarly Nudge is largely worthy of skim reading after the first half (actually after 100 pages). I think Sunstein is a very bright guy with tremendous insight. I just wish that instead of putting out so many different books he would put out fewer books that are more comprehensive.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Nudge, December 19, 2009

By 

Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done (Hardcover)

Weighing in at only 88 pages, this book is an excellent distillation of group decision making, from assimilation bias(a person who holds a strong belief will, upon hearing contrary facts, waver for a moment ,and then believe even more strongly in their original belief) to how we are influenced in our decision making by the decisions of others and how ,in a group that agrees with us, we betray our personal beliefs and gravitate towards more strident and polarized views. A worthwhile if pricey book.

6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth Doesn't Hurt; It Just Disappears, December 11, 2009

By 

Bic "Well, they asked for a pen name." (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done (Hardcover)

It's difficult to face it, but here's the truth: Most of us prefer to have our ideas confirmed over having them challenged. That's the crux of Sunstein's case against the Internet. He's not the first to point this out, but he illustrates it very well. And points out a legitimate danger posed by new communications technologies.

For me, this was a useful book because I haven't quite been able to figure out for myself what has gone so wrong with our national discourse these days. I was inclined, frankly, to blame it on malevolent forces--especially forces I disagree with. But Sunstein shows that the stakes are much higher than that. It isn't just that some people are deluded and some people lie; it's that we find ourselves in a situation in which all of us are permitted to gravitate to messages that reinforce our assumptions. To some degree, we could always do that. But it's become very easy to do these days. A difference in degree has become a difference in kind.

It doesn't help matters, either, that the least reasonable among us are the most drawn to our new ways of communicating. If you doubt that, read the comments that newspapers post after many news stories. So many of the posts are contemptuous remarks aimed more at cutting off dialogue than genuine contributions to a conversation.

That problem is magnified in ways that Sunstein traces very well in this book. I'm still horrified by liars and rumor mongers. But it helps (a little) to know what has given them such influence nowadays.