Tainted truth

In this age of information, sponsored studies have become America's most powerful and popular tool of persuasion. However, in Tainted Truth, we find out that much of what we learn from them is false. Although the studies and surveys wear the guise of objective science, their findings almost invariably reflect their sponsors' intentions. Most such research is designed with a certain outcome in mind, and it is all but guaranteed to achieve that outcome.

The result is a compilation of information - the information used every day by voters, consumers and leaders. Manufactured truths dominate the American discourse in Congress, courtrooms, offices, newspapers, magazines and television. Studies have become the vehicle for polishing corporate images, influencing juries, shaping debate on public policy, selling commercial products and satisfying the media's - and the public's - voracious appetite for information. In this blistering expose, Cynthia Crossen shows how deeply this research world has been pervaded by artfully crafted deception - and how it affects us all. Crossen reveals how the manufacturers of silicone breast implants did not disclose information regarding the dangers of the implants; how the demise of the cloth-diaper industry was influenced by questionable statistics published by Procter & Gamble - the leading supplier of disposable diapers; how supermarkets across the country emptied their shelves of apples because of the Alar scare, initiated by highly disputed research from a publicity hungry environmental group; and how even the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court was influenced by fast and biased polls.