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The Unthinkable and the Unthought

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  • TIMUR KURAN

    (University of Southern California)

Abstract

When people misrepresent their beliefs in response to social pressures, public discourse gets impoverished. Because public discourse is a basic determinant of individual perceptions and understandings, a by-product is the distortion of private knowledge. This article highlights a tendency for beliefs treated as unthinkable to disappear from society's repertoire of ideas, that is, to become unthought. Two mechanisms are identified as the vehicles of this destructive evolutionary process. The first is intragenerational: As individuals we base many of our judgments on social proof. The second is intergenerational: We tend not to think about matters our forebears have treated as settled. The argument distinguishes between hard beliefs, which are based on direct observation, inference, and analysis, and soft beliefs, which are based exclusively on social proof.

Suggested Citation

  • Timur Kuran, 1993. "The Unthinkable and the Unthought," Rationality and Society, , vol. 5(4), pages 473-505, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:5:y:1993:i:4:p:473-505
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463193005004005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Twight, Charlotte, 1996. "Federal control over education: Crisis, deception, and institutional change," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 299-333, December.
    2. Benabou, Roland, 2008. "Ideology," IZA Discussion Papers 3416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Roland Bénabou, 2013. "Groupthink: Collective Delusions in Organizations and Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(2), pages 429-462.
    4. Dequech, David, 2006. "The new institutional economics and the theory of behaviour under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 109-131, January.
    5. Mike Reay, 1995. "In What Way Could Political Correctness be Beneficial?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 7(4), pages 493-497, October.

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