Being Wrong - Kathryn Schulz [203]
Tenerife, 303, 387n
Terkel, Studs, 273, 274, 275, 277, 278, 294, 383n
Tetlock, Philip, 185–86, 213n, 215, 309
Theaetetus (Plato), 11, 346n, 354n
theories, and scientific method, 31–32, 125–26, 208
theorizing instinct, 96–99
theory of mind, 102–3, 113
This American Life (radio show), 84, 356n
time-frame defense, 213–14, 216
timelessness and love, 261
time-out checklist, 316, 317
Tootsie (movie), 324
transformation, 273–95
buyer’s remorse and, 281–82
child development and, 289–92
C. P. Ellis’s story, 273–79, 280, 294–95
sense of self and, 279–81, 283–85, 292–93
Whittaker Chambers’s story, 285–88
transparency and error-prevention, 304–5, 306n
traumatic events and memory failures, 71–73
travel (travelers), 292
Trojan War, 7–8n
Trout, J. D., 357n
Truman, Harry, 173–74
Tuchman, Barbara, 176, 230n
Twain, Mark, 214
Tzara, Tristan, 328
umpiring, 174n
uncertainty. See doubt
unconscious, 35, 60, 145, 228–33, 283–84, 287
undecided voters, 177–78
Unified Field Theory of humor, 325
unified theory of error, 10–11
Updike, John, 16
Updike, Nancy, 84
Uranus, 126, 126n
vases/faces image, 66, 66n, 354n
Vesalius, Andreas, 129
Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Lexington, Kentucky), 301n
Vietnam War, 152, 175
Vikings, 51
Village Voice, 25, 26
visual perception. See perception
vividness of memories, 72, 75–76
Voltaire, 164, 169, 202, 203
waffling, 175, 175n
wandering Jew, 41–43
wandering knight, 41–43
War of 1812, 202–3
Washington Post, 26, 143
Wasi, Abdul, 154–55
Watson, Tom, 284n
Waxman, Henry, 87–88, 89
Webster, Noah, 374n
Wecker, Regina, 148, 364n
Weinstein, E. A., 83n
Wertheim, Margaret, 94
“What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” (Nagel), 253–55
White, Ellen, 212
White, James, 212
Why Societies Need Dissent (Sunstein), 139n, 314n
Wilde, Oscar, 320
Wilson, Anita, 188–92, 195, 196, 197, 208, 277–78, 293
Wilson, Timothy, 80–82
wisdom of crowds, 139n
wishy-washy, 175, 175n
“witness.” See also eyewitness testimony
Witness (Chambers), 286
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 67, 166–67
Woodall, Glen, 227–28, 377n
wooden-headedness, 230n
Woolley, Jacqueline, 385n
word-fragment study, 256–58
Wordsworth, William, 108
World War II, 71–72, 131, 157–58
Wrong Buts, 213–18
“better safe than sorry” defense, 216, 216n
blaming other people defense, 215–16
near-miss defense, 214–15, 216
out-of-left-field defense, 214–15, 216
time-frame defense, 213–14, 216
Yeats, W. B., 183
Yom Kippur, 7
“You Don’t Know Me, But I Know You” (Pronin), 258
Zealots, 161, 161n
zealots (zealotry), 161–63
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Speaking of wrongness: I had no idea, when I began this project, what I was getting into—no idea how challenging it would be, no idea how much I would learn (and would need to learn), and certainly no idea how many intellectual and emotional debts I would accrue along the way. Quite possibly I would never have gotten started if I had known all that. Since I’m glad I did, I should start by thanking those people who did know, and wisely kept the information to themselves.
One of these was my agent, Kim Witherspoon, who began by plucking me out of thin air and proceeded to furnish both solid ground and seventh heaven—a nice hat trick if ever there was one. I am immensely grateful to her for her encouragement, dedication, and integrity. Thanks also to all the other kind and helpful people at Inkwell Management. I am likewise grateful to Daniel Halpern and Virginia Smith, my editors at Ecco, whose enthusiasm for this project was matched only by their patience with the time it took me to complete it. Along with the rest of the Ecco/HarperCollins team, they have been a consistent pleasure to work with, and a consistent boon to this book.
The convention, with acknowledgements, is to thank everyone who helped out, then append the courteous caveat that any mistakes in the book are solely the responsibility of the author. In this case, however, many of the people who helped me the most did so precisely by sharing the mistakes that appear in these pages. I would not have