The Art of Being Wrong

The Art of Being Wrong, Michael Crichton diagnoses our culture's propensity to engage in self-deception and our need to believe what we see, hear, or feel. The primary tenet of The Art of Being Wrong is that our minds are shaped by our cognitive responses to what we see, hear, and feel. For example, if a television anchor says that a new study proves that X caused Y, and a popular book says that Y caused Z, both statements are False, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we accept the veracity of our beliefs, our whole life becomes driven by that single principle: "If it feels good, then it's probably true."

If The Art of Being Wrong was written about our present-day environment, it would suggest that the biggest problem facing humanity is a mental disorder: the desire to avoid pain, suffering, uncertainty, and failure. According to Crichton, people who suffer from The Art of Being Wrong experience what he calls a "cognitive pain," the anguish and frustration of holding false beliefs in place that serve to prevent them from seeing, knowing, or experiencing reality. Because of their compulsion to maintain these beliefs, people become paralyzed in their ability to make even the most simple judgments and assessments.

In his book, The Art of Being Wrong, Crichton describes an experiment in which a group of students were asked to complete a task while wearing a small device on their head that measures muscle tension. Afterwards, the device is taken off of the subject and they are given a series of psychological tests. The purpose of these tests was to see if the students who held their positions throughout the testing period would change their beliefs based on the information they were given. The results showed that the group who held their beliefs consistent with the information they were given experienced a large increase in their cognitive pain.

The Science of Doing Wrong, by turned science author Sam Crichton, takes a look at how people can unconsciously and powerfully hold other people accountable for their wrongdoings. The book examines how holding others accountable for our actions can lead to mental paralysis, uncertainty, and ultimately pain and suffering. The crux of the matter, according to Crichton, is that there are two types of pain: the "conscious pain of doing wrong," and the "pain of living with the result of your doing wrong." The Science of Doing Wrong claims to be able to help individuals overcome the pain of living with the result of their wrongdoing by teaching them how to overcome their "blind spots."

As the title of the book suggests, The Art of Being Wrong offers a variety of examples throughout its pages to illustrate just how easily we can fall into the habit of holding other people responsible for our actions and reactions. The example Crichton uses to illustrate this point is that of a waiter in a restaurant. A customer walks over to the table and starts talking to the waiter. The waiter, unaware of the fact that he is not paying attention to the customer, does not hear the conversation and do his work as if he is not aware that another person is talking to him.

The Science of Doing Wrong, then, is not a book about how to avoid being wrong. Instead, it is an examination of why and how people continue to hold other people's responsibility and beliefs over their own. The authors argue that this tendency is rooted in our natural concern for security and personal well-being. In essence, then, the reason we are willing to be held responsible for other people's wrongdoings is because giving them the ability to be free is more important than letting them be free themselves.