Does Preference Falsification Drive Moderation Out of the Conversation?

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Comedy flourishes in repressive societies. It tends to gravitate toward areas where we are uncomfortable speaking openly to understand, the areas where preference falsification is rampant. I feel it's harder to do this if you have moderate views, precisely because moderation suggests a certain amount of flexibility, anuance, or even compromise.

We all self-censor at times. We keep quiet at dinner with our in-laws, or nod passively in a work meeting. But what happens when we take this deception a step further, and pretend we believe the opposite of what we really feel? In this favorite episode from 2020, economist and political scientist Timur Kuran explains how our personal, professional and political lives are shaped by the fear of what other people think.

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