Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

The bestselling history of and investigation into human error by beloved New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz

"Both wise and clever, full of fun and surprise about a topic so central to our lives that we almost never even think about it." —Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why is our grasp of the psychology of belief so flawed that we are bad at imagining our ideas could be mistaken, and why do we react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness, and shame?

In the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational, Being Wrong explores the fascinating human cognition behind what it means to be in error, and why homo sapiens tend to tacitly assume (or loudly insist) that they are right about most everything. Kathryn Schulz argues that error is the fundamental human condition and should be celebrated as such. Guiding the reader through the history and psychology of error, from Socrates to Alan Greenspan, Being Wrong will change the way you perceive screw-ups, both of the mammoth and daily variety, forever.

This witty exploration of wrongology reveals:

• Our Surprising Fallibility: Schulz examines why being wrong is so natural, yet why we react to our own mistakes with surprise, denial, and shame.
• The Certainty Trap: An investigation into why we go through life assuming we are right about nearly everything, from how to load the dishwasher to the origins of the universe.
• A History of Error: A journey through the psychology and philosophy of being wrong, guided by thinkers and public figures from Socrates to Alan Greenspan.
• The Case for Being Wrong: A compelling argument for why error is the fundamental human condition, and why our capacity to screw up should be celebrated, not condemned.

Kathryn Schulz is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Foreign Policy, the Nation, the Boston Globe, and the "Freakonomics" blog of the New York Times. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley.