What We Want to Be True

Flattering and convenient falsehoods spread faster than inconvenient truths, because a belief that excuses us, confirms us, or makes us feel good never gets the scrutiny we reserve for ideas that threaten us. A standalone intro names the mechanism; five concrete cases, two of them historical, show a convenient falsehood beating an inconvenient truth precisely because it was convenient. The test running through all of them is simple and uncomfortable: the more an idea benefits you to believe, the higher the bar it should clear.