Liar, Liar
Are Americans addicted to self-delusion?
By Vincent Rossmeier, November 17, 2008
Bet You Didn’t Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts about Living in the USA
By Cheryl Russell
Prometheus Books, 2008
316 pages
Every four years, as the U.S. presidential election nears, demographers suddenly become the academic version of Brangelina. Each time you turn on the TV, there’s some cheery stat-addict on your screen describing the voting preferences of blue-collar Rust-Belt males or how the rising Latino population will change American electoral patterns in coming decades. But now that the election is over, we shouldn’t just send demographers back into their numerical monasteries until their services are required again in 2012. Demographers have a lot to tell us about our lives. Problem is, we might not always want to hear what they have to say.
A good place to start for demography tyros is Cheryl Russell’s new book, Bet You Didn’t Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts about Living in the USA. As the former editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine, a holy text of the profession, Russell is something of an expert’s expert. But despite her wonky background, Russel's book is thoroughly accessible and entertaining.
Bet You Didn’t Know is packed with enough delightfully random facts to satisfy even the most die-hard Jeopardy fan. In 201 separate issue-themed pages, we learn such valuable miscellany as: 17 percent of American 14-year-olds wear braces; 44 percent of our households have one or more bicycles; Americans find sex to be the most enjoyable activity; and only 33 percent of us think most people can be trusted.
But in her introduction, Russell writes that her goal is to “separate the real stories from the distractions,” and over the course of the book, she does just that. Bet You Didn’t Know is far more than just a catalogue of trends; it’s actually a chilling narrative about contemporary America. There’s a sinister theme underlying the story Russell’s telling: we, Americans, are a craven bunch of liars.
We lie about everything and anything we can – especially when it makes us seem better than we really are. Whether the topic is abortion, personal happiness, sex, education, or our children, we're a nation addicted to self-delusion. Take for example, our parenting opinions. According to the studies Russell cites, 86 percent of Americans say watching children grow up is life’s greatest joy. Except, examine the findings and you see our responses aren’t accurate.
Russell quotes Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, who wrote the following in his book Stumbling on Happiness: “Careful studies of how women feel as they go about their daily activities show that they are less happy when taking care of their children than when eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching television.” That’s right, CSI: NY gives us more pleasure than little Zack’s inability to color within the lines.
According to Gilbert, the enjoyment mothers feel caring for their children is only slightly higher than the pleasure they get from doing housework. And if further proof about our problems with self-honesty is needed, Russell quotes a government study that found a remarkable 49 percent of American parents say they “never” feel angry with their children. Never? How could any parent make such a claim with a straight face?
By Cheryl Russell
Prometheus Books, 2008
316 pages
Every four years, as the U.S. presidential election nears, demographers suddenly become the academic version of Brangelina. Each time you turn on the TV, there’s some cheery stat-addict on your screen describing the voting preferences of blue-collar Rust-Belt males or how the rising Latino population will change American electoral patterns in coming decades. But now that the election is over, we shouldn’t just send demographers back into their numerical monasteries until their services are required again in 2012. Demographers have a lot to tell us about our lives. Problem is, we might not always want to hear what they have to say.
A good place to start for demography tyros is Cheryl Russell’s new book, Bet You Didn’t Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts about Living in the USA. As the former editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine, a holy text of the profession, Russell is something of an expert’s expert. But despite her wonky background, Russel's book is thoroughly accessible and entertaining.
Bet You Didn’t Know is packed with enough delightfully random facts to satisfy even the most die-hard Jeopardy fan. In 201 separate issue-themed pages, we learn such valuable miscellany as: 17 percent of American 14-year-olds wear braces; 44 percent of our households have one or more bicycles; Americans find sex to be the most enjoyable activity; and only 33 percent of us think most people can be trusted.
But in her introduction, Russell writes that her goal is to “separate the real stories from the distractions,” and over the course of the book, she does just that. Bet You Didn’t Know is far more than just a catalogue of trends; it’s actually a chilling narrative about contemporary America. There’s a sinister theme underlying the story Russell’s telling: we, Americans, are a craven bunch of liars.
We lie about everything and anything we can – especially when it makes us seem better than we really are. Whether the topic is abortion, personal happiness, sex, education, or our children, we're a nation addicted to self-delusion. Take for example, our parenting opinions. According to the studies Russell cites, 86 percent of Americans say watching children grow up is life’s greatest joy. Except, examine the findings and you see our responses aren’t accurate.
Russell quotes Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, who wrote the following in his book Stumbling on Happiness: “Careful studies of how women feel as they go about their daily activities show that they are less happy when taking care of their children than when eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching television.” That’s right, CSI: NY gives us more pleasure than little Zack’s inability to color within the lines.
According to Gilbert, the enjoyment mothers feel caring for their children is only slightly higher than the pleasure they get from doing housework. And if further proof about our problems with self-honesty is needed, Russell quotes a government study that found a remarkable 49 percent of American parents say they “never” feel angry with their children. Never? How could any parent make such a claim with a straight face?
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pampl ☺
November 19, 2008 10:37 am
This is an interesting article but some of Rossmeier's accusations of self-delusion are pretty weak. Loving watching your kids growing up but hating cleaning up after them isn't self delusion. Concealing your sexual orientation from your church isn't self-deceit either, unless you're a church of one. Some people would argue that finding terrorism scarier than more common crimes is actually the product of normal (not self-)deceit, but in any case being afraid more of something that's less likely doesn't require any dishonesty. I'm more afraid of Freddy Krueger than having a heart attack despite the statistics. The last example is the most confused- a single person with an annoying cell phone habit can annoy hundreds of people throughout the day, so 82% of people being annoyed on occasion by others' cell phone use only implies that more than maybe 0.1% of people are annoying.
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