Just Trust Me: Finding the Truth in a World of Spin

by G. Randy Kasten SUVs are the safest vehicle because theyre so large-right? Wrong! Thats the advertising pitch, but in 2000, they had the highest rollover rate (36%) of any vehicle type involved in fatal accidents. Yet two years later their safety myth was still so strong that one of four vehicles sold in the U. S. was an SUV. The world of spin we live in is full of such potentially hazardous illusions. We need to know if particular foods can hurt us with Salmonella or cholesterol, whether our government is truthful in its reasons for waging war, what problems a political candidate may cause or resolve if elected, and whether the items we purchase are durable or junk. But gaining those insights can be challenging when so many of the illusions surrounding us are deliberately created. As a civil-litigation attorney for over twenty-five years, Randy Kasten has heard thousands of lies. He has witnessed that those who dispense the information we need to make decisions-advertisers, salespeople, politicians, and the media-often have a vested interest in manipulating us. Truths biggest enemies are the people whose job it is to sell us incomplete versions of the facts and our willingness to believe what we want to believe. Often, we believe what we believe because it is the only story available. To help us see through deceptions of all types, Kasten discusses eight kinds of lies and what we can do about them, as well as methods for discerning the truth gleaned from his practice of law. Other topics include advertising magic, thirty-six places where the truth hides, lessons from science, the media and misinformation, and how we fool ourselves. Altogether, he provides a unique tool for enabling us to make decisions that will lead to more prosperity, better health, greater intimacy, and a life based on lasting values. Excerpt from Chapter Four Thirty-Six Places Where the Truth Hides "It wasn't meant to be." "Someone must be looking out for me." At times, we can believe the events in our lives are being deliberately coordinated by some outside force. A string of misfortunes can leave us convinced we are being punished, while a run of good luck may suggest we are doing something morally right. It can be tempting to imagine that everything is part of a grand, ultimately sensible plan, even if we do not understand how that plan works. When we believe in a grand plan, we lose some of our natural curiosity about why things really do happen. Mythical explanations rob us of knowledge, our ability to discover causes and to bring about change.

Superficial Evidence In July of 1997, Lee Harding ate chicken tacos at a Mexican restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado. He thought they tasted slimy and gross. Harding developed severe stomach cramps, passed bloody stools and was eventually diagnosed with e.coli. Although Harding was sure he had been sickened by the tacos, the Pueblo Health Department insisted on collecting some of the frozen hamburgers he had also recently eaten with his wife and sister, neither of whom had become ill. A test of the hamburger meat showed the same strain of bacteria and led to a recall of some 35 million pounds of ground beef in August of 1997. If Hardings own analysis --based on his opinion of the chicken tacoshad not been questioned, untold numbers of others would have been affected. Even our own first hand impressions do not necessarily yield the truth. Superficial Affinity In the spring of 1951, Joe DiMaggio saw a newspaper photograph of Marilyn Monroe posing with a baseball player and holding a bat. Imagining she had an avid interest in baseball, DiMaggio arranged to meet her. Their subsequent short-lived marriage needed something more substantial than DiMaggios imagination to hold it together. Choices may seem natural because they contain a familiar element, but that element might be far less important than imagined. Whats In It for Me? Some people are obsessed with themselves, and it is natural for everyone to approach situations with some self-interest in mind. But constantly looking for ways to benefit ourselves can get in the way of seeing the big picture. Limiting our focus to what benefits us can hide whatever a situation offers for other people. When we are too focused on ourselves, we fail to learn what motivates others and to see how we can be generous with them. Ego Egotists relentlessly seek proof of their own talents or cleverness, and pay much less attention to clues that they may have fallen short. In an obsessive search for evidence of their greatness, they skip much of the truth about themselves, and often much about the accomplishments of others. Few of us are completely free of the tendency to look for reflections of how important we are. We can be blinded by our egos at times, in the way the egotist is blinded all the time. Sometimes it is worthwhile to put ourselves aside.

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