How often are women harassed? What percentage of the population are immigrants? How bad is unemployment? These questions are important, but most of us get the answers wrong, regardless of age, sex, or education. We may blame cognitive bias or fake news, but neither tells the complete story, and the Internet may be more of a hindrance than a help. Drawing on his research into public perception across 40 countries, Bobby Duffy offersa sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe.