May Contain Lies

'Alex Edmans is such a crisp, sharp salutary voice - and a great guide to the bullsh*t of the modern world' Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge

'A powerful and punchy explanation of why misinformation is a problem that affects us all' Gillian Tett, Editor-at-Large, Financial Times

A ground-breaking book that reveals why our human biases affect the way we receive and interpret information, with practical suggestions for how to think more critically

* One of Adam Grant's 8 New Idea Books to Start Spring*
* A Financial Times Book of the Month, April 2024*
* A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Book for May 2024*
* A Wall Street Journal recommended summer read 2024*


Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, business leaders, and best-selling authors. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, allowing people to find evidence to support whatever position they want. Many of these sources are flawed, yet by playing on our emotions and preying on our biases, they can gain widespread acceptance, warp our views, and distort our decisions.

In this eye-opening book, Alex Edmans, an economist and professor at London Business School, teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colourful examples - from a wellness guru's tragic but fabricated backstory, to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the diet that ensnared millions yet hastened its founder's death - Edmans highlights the biases that cause us to mistake statements for facts, facts for data, data for evidence, and evidence for proof.

Armed with the knowledge of what to guard against, he then provides a practical guide to combat this tide of misinformation. Going beyond simply checking the facts and explaining individual statistics, Edmans explores the relationships between statistics - the science of cause and effect - ultimately training us to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. May Contain Lies is an essential read for anyone who wants to make better sense of the world and take better decisions.

'A passionate and dispassionate call to truth - and how to achieve it - in a world of growing disinformation' Will Hutton, The Guardian

'Not only brilliantly researched and written but immensely practical' Andy Haldane, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England

'A timely book and, despite the nerdy statistical theories, is often quite funny' Harry Wallop, The Time

Review: A powerful and punchy explanation of why misinformation is a problem that affects us all - be that in finance, politics, media, business or anywhere else. Edmans offers clear ideas about how to counter this, not just in our own lives but also across society as a whole. Timely and very provocative! -- Gillian Tett * Editor-at-Large, Financial Times *
Alex Edmans is such a crisp, sharp salutary voice - and a great guide to the bullsh*t of the modern world -- Rory Stewart
A masterpiece! A must-read book that is both a delight to consume and sure to improve the quality of your thinking' -- Katy Milkman * Professor, The Wharton School, author of How to Change *
Mass disinformation and poor understanding of basic statistics are the hallmarks of our 'information age'. Alex Edmans' book is the much-needed antidote -- Vaclav Smil * Author of How the World Really Works and Numbers Don't Lie *
Brilliantly researched and written [and] immensely practical in helping guide us through this thicket of (mis)information ... I am already drawing on its insights in my everyday decision-making -- Andy Haldane * former Chief Economist at the Bank of England *
A passionate and dispassionate call to truth - and how to achieve it - in a world of growing disinformation in which truth and common ground are the casualties -- Will Hutton * President of the Academy of Social Sciences, author of The State We're In *
A fascinating account of how to navigate through lies and misleading statistics to arrive at a reasonable approximation of the truth. A valuable aid to make sense of our confusing world -- Raghuram G. Rajan * Professor at the University of Chicago, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund *
A hard-hitting book with some great stories -- Andrew Gelman * Professor of Statistics and Political Science, Columbia University *
A clear-headed guide to the exaggerations, sloppy research and the occasional downright lies peddled by companies, universities, authors and Ted Talk gurus. ... It's a timely book and, despite the nerdy statistical theories, is often quite funny -- Harry Wallop * The Times *
A road map for how to separate myths from the real thing and come to a better understanding of the world, drawing on the approaches of academic research. [Edmans] is well placed to share what professional thinkers can teach us about examining our subjectivity to think more clearly about topics from income disparity to cancer cures -- Jonathan Moules * Financial Times *

Author Biography: Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. His TED talk 'What to Trust in a Post-Truth World' has been viewed 2 million times. He has also spoken at Davos and Google. In 2013, he was awarded tenure at The Wharton School and in 2021, was named MBA Professor of the Year by Poets and Quants. Edmans writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Harvard Business Review. His first book Grow the Pie (Cambridge University Press) was a Financial Times Book of the Year.