The toll of magical thinking

Lies damage everything and everyone eventually

Several years ago, Sam Harris, the neuroscientist turned public figure, wrote a book entitled Lying.1

It begins:

Among the many paradoxes of human life, this is perhaps the most peculiar and consequential: We often behave in ways that are guaranteed to make us unhappy. Many of us spend our lives marching with open eyes toward remorse, regret, guilt, and d…