Book Review: Everybody Lies

This book review was included in the February 2019 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

In his recent Sunday school class, Dave Lane has discussed the idea of common grace - that God bestows grace on all mankind, and, therefore, we have a lot to learn from even those who do not follow Jesus. As a result, this space will often feature books that are not pointedly “Christian” but can help us understand the world that we live in. Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is one such book.

The book attempts to explain humanity through analysis of “big data.” It starts by explaining data science - “Data science takes a natural and intuitive human process—spotting patterns and making sense of them—and injects it with steroids, potentially showing us that the world works in a completely different way from how we thought it did.”

Davidowitz then employs data science and analyzes different aspects of our society. Perhaps the most helpful part of the book is in the middle, where a section called “Digital Truth Serum” gives several revelations from google searches. Google searches tend to be more accurate indicators of what people believe than surveys, because people are inclined to lie on surveys. The truth about us lies in our search history.

One of the insights from the book that surprised me, as a parent of four, were studies done on earning power correlated to choice of college. As it turns out, earning a degree from an elite school (think Harvard, etc.) has absolutely no benefit when it comes to future earning power compared to earning a degree from a more mainstream school (think Penn State). While future salary isn’t the ultimate measure of a good school, this can be a helpful insight in particular - and in general, it can remind us that the world doesn’t always work the way we assume that it does.

Another big data study seemed extremely relevant for Christians as we consider how we engage with those that we don’t agree with. The author studied multiple speeches and parts of speeches by President Obama about tolerance. When the President straight-up said that people need to be more tolerant, Google searches became less tolerant. People don’t like to be lectured. When President Obama instead gave examples of a people group that had contributed to the country, angry internet searches on the subject became less angry. Davidowitz says -

When we lecture angry people, the search data implies that their fury can grow. But subtly provoking people’s curiosity, giving new information, and offering new images of the group that is stoking their rage may turn their thoughts in different, more positive directions.

In other words, we should think twice before sharing that link that comes off as lecturing your opponents. We need to find better ways to engage. This is a helpful book for that reason alone - and an entertaining read if you’re interested in the subject.

One warning - there is some discussion in this book of the sexual appetites/ preferences of different people (including some rather explicit internet searches). If this is the kind of thing that trips you up, or you don’t want to read about, maybe this book isn’t for you.