Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

by Kathryn Schulz

Thanks to language, we can talk about our internal states, and we have a rich and reliable vocabulary with which to do so. Not that this vocabulary, or communication more generally, is perfectly reliable: my communications require your interpretations, and, as with other interpretative processes, this one can go awry. Maybe I’m deliberately trying to deceive you. Maybe I’m so lacking in self-awareness that my reports about myself are not to be trusted. Or maybe you and I just have different understandings of linguistically identical statements. To me, “I’m really stressed out” might mean “ask me how I’m doing” to you, it might mean “please leave me alone.” Still, notwithstanding these potential pitfalls, this ability to communicate about our thoughts and feelings is one of the more necessary and remarkable—and definitional—aspects of being human.