Willful Blindness book cover
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Willful Blindness

by Margaret Heffernan
🎧 14 min listen Psychology

We ignore dangers to stay comfortable. Heffernan reveals why we choose blindness and how to regain the courage to see.

Key Ideas
Chapter 1 The Legal Definition of a Human Flaw.

We choose comfort over truth, creating "echo chambers" that hide risk. Complexity masks fraud (financial crisis). Obedience to authority silences diss…

Chapter 2 The Comfort of Familiarity (Love is Blind). 🔒

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Chapter 3 The Cult of Obedience. 🔒

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Chapter 4 Complexity as a Hiding Place. 🔒

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Chapter 5 Page 5: The Story of Gayla Benefield (Libby, Montana). 🔒

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Chapter 6 Distance and the Bystander Effect. 🔒

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Chapter 7 Breaking the Spell (The Cassandras). 🔒

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Chapter 8 Conclusion: The Courage to See. 🔒

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Willful Blindness
From Enron to Catholic Church scandals, disasters happen
in plain sight. Heffernan explores the psychology of
"Willful Blindness"—our active choice to ignore painful
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Willful Blindness

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