Wrong: Why Experts (Scientists, Finance Wizards, Doctors, Relationship Gurus, Celebrity Ceos, High-Powered Consultants, Healt

Our investmeents are devastated, obesity is epidemic, blue-chip companies circle the drain, and popular medications turn out to be ineffective and even dangerous. What happened? Didn't we listen to the scientists, economists, and other experts who promised us that if we followed their advice all would be well? Actually, those experts are a big reason we're in this mess. Their expert counsel usually turns out to be wrong--often wildly so. Wrong reveals the dangerously distorted ways experts come up with their advice and why the most heavily flawed conclusions end up getting the most attention--all the more so in the online era. But there's hope: Wrong spells out the means by which every individual and organization can do a better job of unearthing the crucial bits of right within a vast avalanche of misleading pronouncements.

David H. Freedman is a business and science journalist who has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, and Wired, among other publications. He is the author of Brainmakers, Corps Business, and At Large, and coauthor, with Eric Abrahamson, of A Perfect Mess.