The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

by Bryan Caplan

The moral: in politics, critical thinking is an act of charity. Objective truth has to beg for spare change to survive. Owing to these perverse incentives, almost any political idea that becomes popular tends to remain popular.49 Even if it’s false. Even if it’s always been false. Why would the false become popular in the first place? Because human beings don’t like expressing—or believing—ugly truths. Instead, we gravitate—in word and thought—to views that “sound good.” Psychologists call this Social Desirability Bias.50 “There’s no such thing as a stupid child” sounds better than “10% of children are stupid.” “We will win the War on Terror” sounds better than “There’s a 50% chance the War on Terror reduces terrorism, a 30% chance it makes no difference, and a 20% chance it makes terrorism worse.” Isn’t “what sounds good” occasionally true? Certainly. When skinny people ask “Am I fat?” the unbiased response is “No.” Social Desirability Bias distorts responses to “Am I fat?” because we want to say “No” to everyone. Social Desirability Bias takes many forms. The bald lie—declaring “I love you” when you feel no love—is only one. More typically, the bias works through intellectual laziness. It’s not a lie if you believe it—and if you avoid calm deliberation, you can believe almost anything. What does this have to do with education?