Even the CIA didn’t believe the truth when it was right in front of them. How could the CIA miss signals and overlook deception from a long-time work colleague—someone they believed had integrity? A person they knew to be upright, truthful, and who “played by the rules?” And if the best human lie detectors in the world can be fooled, how can any of us laypeople know when someone is telling the truth?
These questions are at the heart of Malcom Gladwell’s new book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about People We Don’t Know. Here’s how Amazon describes it:
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn’t true?
The book is even more intriguing than