We read books and believe the words inside. This is especially true when said book is written by a scientist or some other learned acedemic.

Most manuscripts are read and edited several times over before they are published.

There’s no reason not to trust what’s inside.

This morning, however, I lost that naïvety for good.

Before digging deeper, I won’t give away the book or the author. But after several chapters of fairly interesting subject matter, I stumbled upon not one, but two instances of incorrect information.

The author cited two unrelated situations to prove his point — one regarding the behaviour of certain animals, the other a study on human interaction. The problem is that he lied about each situation in order to suit his argument.

The details were subtle, just insignificant enough to pass under the radar for most people. However, by chance, mine caught them both.

The first, the animal behaviour example, is something I’ve heard several times in the past. I have a strange memory for trivial knowledge — these sorts of things stick with me. So when he stated the fact he used for his point, something in me went on high alert.

Soon after, when describing the scientific study, I already knew where he was going with it. This is because I had read about the exact same study in a book I read last year. And when the punch line came, and his statement of the results made clear, it was the absolute opposite of the outcome I had previously learned.

So I paused the book.

I did a quick Google search about said animal behaviour, and my memory was correct. The author was wrong. The same goes for the anthropological study mentioned in last year’s book.

The information in this book is false, blatantly wrong, misleading and twisted in order to serve the author’s goals.

I deleted the audiobook immediately. While I won’t take further steps until I do proper research, I plan on digging into this.

What bothers me the most is that I’ve been absorbing information from this book over the last week. This information may have helped shape my view of human interaction in the world.

And now I need to go back and remove it all from my memory. Regardless of its truth, the source cannot be trusted.