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Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday
explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should
believe-and argues that we're pretty good at making these
decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier
demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion-whether
by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers-fail miserably.
Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields
ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the
narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is
easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is
mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from
experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with
sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a
variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against
harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when
presented with the right evidence. Even failures-when we accept
false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack
medicine-are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning
cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not
Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that
surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do
it better still.
Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday
explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should
believe-and argues that we're pretty good at making these
decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier
demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion-whether
by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers-fail miserably.
Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields
ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the
narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is
easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is
mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from
experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with
sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a
variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against
harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when
presented with the right evidence. Even failures-when we accept
false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack
medicine-are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning
cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not
Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that
surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do
it better still.
If reason is what makes us human, then why do we humans often
behave so irrationally? Taking us from desert ants to Aristotle,
cognitive psychologists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber explore how
our 'flawed superpower' of reason works, how it doesn't, and how it
evolved to help us develop as social beings. 'Original and
provocative ... likely to have a big impact on our understanding of
ourselves' Steven Pinker 'Brilliant, elegant and compelling ...
turns reason's weaknesses into strengths, arguing that its supposed
flaws are actually design features that work remarkably well ... A
timely and necessary book' Julian Baggini, Financial Times 'Hugo
Mercier and Dan Sperber have solved one of the most important and
longstanding puzzles in psychology' Jonathan Haidt 'Reason is more
likely to confirm things that we want to be true, or which we
already believe. So why does it exist? This book provides the
answer' Alex Dean, Prospect
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