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Could you be persuaded to say something you knew not to be true?

Most of us would probably say “Absolutely not. Never.” But the evidence is that even a small amount of social pressure can make grown adults say things they know to be untrue.

Take the case of Malcolm Gladwell. The Canadian-born author has had most of the good fortune that life can bring. His received opinions have gained him lucrative positions at liberal publications. His books have become international bestsellers. In fact, many authors might look in envy at the fact that some airport bookshops seem to have a whole Malcolm Gladwell section.

His schtick might be to say banal things in ways that appear spicy and new. But he has made a very good career of it and been lauded by his peers.

Yet this week, he admitted that he is a coward.

Appearing on a podcast called “The Real Science of Sport,” Gladwell referred to the vexing question of born males competing in women’s sports.

For most of us, this was always a no-brainer. It was obvious that someone who has been born a male, gone through male puberty and has all the physical advantages of being a man should be kept well clear of women’s sports. Otherwise women’s sports cease to be women’s sports, thousands of young female athletes would train hard for no reason and women’s sports would simply become a division of men’s sports for men who can’t succeed against their male peers.

Gladwell says he finds the arguments for men competing in women’s sports to be unconvincing.

But at a panel in 2022, he said that men should indeed be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

To his credit, he admits why he said what he said just three years ago. He says that he felt “cowed” at the time. Now he is “ashamed of my performance” on the panel in question. He also admitted that he approached the discussion “in a dishonest way.”

Having debated Gladwell in the past, about the same time as his now-recanted panel, I can say that I’m pleased to hear his admission. I’m also not remotely surprised that Gladwell would approach a debate with dishonesty. His performances are generally filled with group-think and laced with condescension toward anyone he finds disagreeing with him.

In fact, in all the decades I have debated my own views in public, I don’t think I’ve often come across someone so willing and indeed eager to debate in bad faith.

But his admission helps us to understand something about the incentive structures in our own society.

Parents across America who said what Gladwell now says were slandered for years for saying it. High school and college athletes a third of Gladwell’s age who dared to say what was true were hounded by mobs. They had their reputations and sometimes their careers wrecked.

And for what? For saying something that should have required no courage to say and which should never have been controversial.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/04/opinion/malcolm-gladwell-admits-he-lied-about-trans-athletes-because-telling-the-truth-destroyed-careers/