Talking to Strangers

by

Malcolm Gladwell

Truth-Default Theory Term Analysis

Truth-Default Theory (TDT) is a theory developed by psychologist Tim Levine to explain how humans have a bias toward truth. Levine believes that we are better at detecting truth-telling than deception because we instinctually believe that people are being honest with us. To stop believing in something or someone, a person must receive a “trigger,” or something that provides definitive, unquestionable proof of deception. People don’t stop believing in something because they have doubts—they stop believing if and only if they have amassed enough doubts. Gladwell sees our bias toward truth as another factor that contributes to our inability to make sense of strangers.

Truth-Default Theory Quotes in Talking to Strangers

The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Truth-Default Theory or refer to Truth-Default Theory. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Default to Truth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Yesterday afternoon I had a long talk with Herr Hitler,” he said. “I feel satisfied now that each of us fully understands what is in the mind of the other.”

Related Characters: Neville Chamberlain (speaker), Malcolm Gladwell, Adolph Hitler
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

The issue with spies is not that there is something brilliant with them. It is that there is something wrong with us.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Ana Belen Montes, Tim Levine
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

We fall out of truth-default mode only when the case against our initial assumption becomes definitive. We do not behave, in other words, like sober-minded scientists, slowly gathering evidence of the truth or falsity of something before reaching a conclusion. We do the opposite. We start by believing. And we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Tim Levine
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

You should have known. There were all kinds of red flags. You had doubts. Levine would say that’s the wrong way to think about the problem. The right question is: were there enough red flags to push you over the threshold of belief? If there weren’t, then by defaulting to truth you were only being human.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Tim Levine, Jerry Sandusky
Page Number: 78-79
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

The difference between Markopolos and Renaissance, however, is that Renaissance trusted the system. Madoff was part of one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the entire financial market. If he was really just making things up, wouldn’t one of the many government watchdogs have caught him already? As Nat Simons, the Renaissance executive, said later, “You just assume that someone was paying attention.”

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Nat Simons (speaker), Bernie Madoff, Nat Simons
Related Symbols: The Holy Fool
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:

What sets the Holy Fool apart is a different sense of the possibility of deception. In real life, Tim Levine reminds us, lies are rare. And those lies that are told are told by a very small subset of people. That’s why it doesn’t matter so much that we are terrible at detecting lies in real life. Under the circumstances, in fact, defaulting to truth makes logical sense. If the person behind the counter at the coffee shop says your total with tax is $6.74, you can do the math yourself to double-check their calculations, holding up the line and wasting thirty seconds of your time. Or you can simply assume the salesperson is telling you the truth, because on balance most people do tell the truth.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Tim Levine, Bernie Madoff
Related Symbols: The Holy Fool
Page Number: 99-100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

The fact that Nassar was doing something monstrous is exactly what makes the parents’ position so difficult.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Tim Levine, Larry Nassar
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:

If every coach is assumed to be a pedophile, then no parent would let their child leave the house, and no sane person would ever volunteer to be a coach. We default to truth—even when that decision carries terrible risks—because we have no choice. Society cannot function otherwise. And in those rare instances where trust ends in betrayal, those victimized by default to truth deserve our sympathy, not our censure.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nassar
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

The transparency problem ends up in the same place as the default-to-truth problem. Our strategies for dealing with strangers are deeply flawed, but they are also socially necessary. We need the criminal-justice system and the hiring process and the selection of babysitters to be human. But the requirement of humanity means that we have to tolerate an enormous amount of error. That is the paradox of talking to strangers. We need to talk to them. But we’re terrible at it—and, as we’ll see in the next two chapters, we’re not always honest with one another about just how terrible at it we are.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker)
Page Number: 166-167
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

There is something about the idea of coupling—of the notion that a stranger’s behavior is tightly connected to place and context—that eludes us. It leads us to misunderstand some of our greatest poets, to be indifferent to the suicidal, and to send police officers on senseless errands. So what happens when a police officer carries that fundamental misconception—and then you add to that the problems of default to truth and transparency? You get Sandra Bland.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Sandra Bland, Brian Encinia, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton
Page Number: 311-312
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Talking to Strangers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Talking to Strangers PDF

Truth-Default Theory Term Timeline in Talking to Strangers

The timeline below shows where the term Truth-Default Theory appears in Talking to Strangers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Three: The Queen of Cuba
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Levine attributes people’s inability to detect deception to what he calls the “ Truth-Default Theory ,” or TDT. Levine’s theory was inspired by one of his graduate students, Hee Sun... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
Levine’s experiment is an apt example of the “ default to truth ” phenomenon. One assumes that the students Levine invites to participate in his experiment aren’t... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
According to Levine, engaging in the truth-default mode requires a “trigger.” A trigger is an action that compels a person to stop “gathering... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...was “a little far-fetched” and unbelievable. Even so, many subjects fell for it and “ defaulted to truth .” (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...subjects had doubts about the experiment, those doubts weren’t enough to counteract their instinct to default to truth . This is the crux of Levine’s philosophy on deception: people don’t believe because they... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...a particularly talented spy, she didn’t need to be. In a world governed by the Truth-Default Theory , people are primed to ignore all manner of deceptive behaviors. According to Levine, it’s... (full context)
Chapter Four: The Holy Fool
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...Madoff, he never truly believed Madoff was a fraud. Like so many others, Simons “ defaulted to truth .” (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Limitations of Transparency  Theme Icon
Coupling Theory and Context  Theme Icon
Gladwell places Markopolos among the minority of people who doubted Madoff and “did not default to truth .” While a person might see defaulting to truth as a social ill that lets... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...have been granted access to Spitzer. Gladwell analyzes Markopolos’s mistake within the context of Levine’s Truth-Default Theory , which suggests that the occasional deceit doesn’t pose a serious threat to human evolution. (full context)
Chapter Five: The Boy in the Shower
Default to Truth Theme Icon
...Montes and Bernie Madoff, and considering all these cases through the lens of Tim Levine’s Truth-Default Theory , Gladwell argues, is it really fair to believe that the officials at Penn State... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Coupling Theory and Context  Theme Icon
...that Sandusky had forced him to engage in sexual activity. Yet, due to Fisher’s “ default to truth ” —his impulse not to doubt Sandusky—neither of these complaints went anywhere. Even a caseworker... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
...treated them rudely, for instance, parents might have been quicker to complain. States Gladwell, “ default to truth biases us in favor of the most likely interpretation.” Indeed, even Nassar’s victims initially stepped... (full context)
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
...Harry Markopolos, who constantly suspects the worst in people. But, Gladwell argues, condemning Spanier for defaulting to truth stems from people’s collective misapprehension that we should want our protectors to be on constant... (full context)
Chapter Six: The Friends Fallacy
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Limitations of Transparency  Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
...interactions entirely. States Gladwell, “the transparency problem ends up in the same place as the default-to-truth problem.” While our methods for dealing with these problems are imperfect, they are also “socially... (full context)
Chapter Eleven: Case Study: The Kansas City Experiments
Default to Truth Theme Icon
Limitations of Transparency  Theme Icon
Coupling Theory and Context  Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
...place and context.” Furthermore, when we combine our misunderstandings about coupling with “the problems of default to truth and transparency,” we open the door for cases similar to the Sandra Bland incident to... (full context)
Chapter Twelve: Sandra Bland
Limitations of Transparency  Theme Icon
Coupling Theory and Context  Theme Icon
Self vs. Stranger  Theme Icon
...95 percent of the time. Gladwell attributes this low detection rate to humanity’s “tendency to default to truth .” Because guns are so rare, the average airport screener assumes that a mildly suspicious-looking... (full context)