Quiz: The Speed of Truth

Test your understanding of Chapter 22. Try to answer without looking back at the text.

Q1. The Correction Speed Model identifies how many variables?

(a) Six (b) Seven (c) Eight (d) Ten

Answer **(c)** Eight variables: evidence clarity, switching cost, defender power, outsider access, alternative availability, crisis probability, correction mode, and revision resistance.

Q2. Which variable is described as the "single strongest predictor of slow correction"?

(a) Evidence clarity (b) Defender power (c) Switching cost (d) Crisis probability

Answer **(c)** Switching cost — because when careers, industries, and institutional identities are built on the wrong answer, correction requires destroying what has been built. The institution's self-preservation instincts resist.

Q3. The chapter identifies five "acceleration levers" — variables amenable to deliberate intervention. Which of the following is NOT an acceleration lever?

(a) Outsider access (b) Evidence clarity (c) Alternative availability (d) Revision resistance

Answer **(b)** Evidence clarity is a structural constraint — it depends partly on the inherent measurability of the subject matter and available technology, which are difficult to change through institutional intervention. The five acceleration levers are: outsider access, alternative availability, defender power, correction mode, and revision resistance.

Q4. Why does alternative availability determine the depth of correction rather than just the speed?

(a) Because alternatives are always better than the original (b) Because fields don't abandon paradigms into a vacuum — they swap them; without a replacement, even a crisis produces only cosmetic reform (c) Because alternative frameworks are harder to develop than to implement (d) Because the existence of alternatives automatically triggers correction

Answer **(b)** This is described as "the hidden key." When Marshall and Warren identified H. pylori, antibiotics were a clear alternative to acid suppression — enabling deep correction. When the 2008 crisis hit, no alternative theoretical framework for macroeconomics was ready — producing only regulatory reform without theoretical change.

Q5. The comparative analysis of six anchor examples found that the combination most predictive of slow correction is:

(a) Low evidence clarity + low crisis probability (b) High switching cost × high defender power (c) Low outsider access + low alternative availability (d) Low revision resistance + high defender power

Answer **(b)** High switching cost × high defender power is described as "the main brake." When substantial institutional investment depends on the wrong answer AND the defenders are connected to external power bases, correction is extremely slow. Both dietary fat and forensic science exhibit this pattern.

Q6. The model predicts that the dietary fat hypothesis would correct very slowly. What is the actual correction timeline?

(a) ~5 years (b) ~15 years (c) ~50 years and still incomplete (d) Fully corrected in the 1990s

Answer **(c)** The dietary fat hypothesis has been under challenge since at least the 1990s, with the original consensus dating to the 1960s. Correction remains incomplete — dietary guidelines have shifted but the full institutional framework has not been replaced. Every variable in the model pulls toward slow correction.

Q7. What is the key difference between "correction mode: persuasion" and "correction mode: circumvention"?

(a) Persuasion is faster; circumvention is slower (b) Persuasion changes existing practitioners' minds; circumvention replaces them with new practitioners who aren't invested in the old paradigm (c) Persuasion uses evidence; circumvention uses political pressure (d) Persuasion is ethical; circumvention is not

Answer **(b)** Persuasion (convincing existing practitioners) is usually slower because it requires overcoming sunk costs and consensus enforcement. Circumvention (replacing practitioners through generational turnover) is Planck's principle in action and is usually faster. Crisis-forced correction is fastest but costliest. Most real corrections involve a mix.

Q8. The model correctly predicted that the Challenger disaster would produce cosmetic rather than genuine correction. Which variable explains why?

(a) Low evidence clarity (b) Low revision resistance — the correction narrative was sanitized, allowing the same pattern to recur (c) High switching cost (d) Low crisis probability

Answer **(b)** Low revision resistance meant the post-Challenger reforms became the institutional narrative ("we fixed it"), and the same normalization of deviance pattern reasserted itself — ultimately producing the Columbia disaster 17 years later. The model predicts that without high revision resistance, even crisis-driven corrections will be cosmetic.

Q9. According to the chapter, why does the same eight-variable model apply across vastly different fields (medicine, military, finance, criminal justice)?

(a) Because all fields study the same questions (b) Because all knowledge-producing institutions share the same fundamental architecture — social consensus production, institutional resistance, and correction through a limited set of channels (c) Because the model is too vague to be specific to any one field (d) Because the author designed it to be universal

Answer **(b)** The model works across fields because the failure modes are structural properties of knowledge-producing institutions, not properties of any specific field's content. All fields produce consensus through social processes, resist change through institutional mechanisms, and correct through evidence, generational replacement, or crisis.

Q10. The chapter acknowledges that the model has limitations. Which of the following is NOT listed as a limitation?

(a) The model assumes the error exists (it doesn't diagnose whether a consensus is actually wrong) (b) The variables interact in ways the model doesn't fully capture (c) The model cannot account for luck and contingency (d) The model only applies to scientific fields, not to business or military contexts

Answer **(d)** The model explicitly applies across scientific, business, military, legal, and other institutional contexts. The listed limitations are: it assumes the error exists, the variables interact non-independently, it doesn't account for luck/contingency, and it is itself subject to the failure modes it describes.

Scoring Guide

  • 9-10 correct: Excellent. You've internalized the Correction Speed Model and can apply it analytically.
  • 7-8 correct: Good. Review the acceleration levers section (22.6) and the patterns (22.5).
  • 5-6 correct: Fair. Revisit the eight-variable framework (22.3) and the comparative analysis (22.4).
  • Below 5: Re-read the chapter focusing on the model's structure. Try building the model from memory before re-reading.