Not Born Yesterday (eBook)

The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe

Hugo Mercier (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2020
384 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-19884-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Why people are not as gullible as we thinkNot 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.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.1.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 4 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sozialpsychologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Advance-fee scam • Advertising • Adviser • Analogy • asymmetry • Behavior • bowerbird • Calculation • Christianity • cognitive science • Confidence trick • conformity • Consideration • Conspiracy Theory • Controversy • Coralie • credibility • Credulity • Cronin • Dan Sperber • deference • demagogue • dominant ideology • economist • Effectiveness • Emotional Contagion • Emotional expression • Employment • Explanation • Fake News • Fox News Channel • Fraud • gullibility • Heuristic • Ian Kershaw • Ideology • Indication (medicine) • inference • Instance (computer science) • Insulin • Jews • Marketing • Marquis de Condorcet • Mass psychogenic illness • Meta-analysis • Microexpression • Milgram experiment • Mind Control • Multitude • narrative • Nazi Propaganda • Nazism • New Religious Movement • newspaper • obstacle • Omniscience • Ostracism • participant • pathogen • Persuasion • phenomenon • Philosopher • Political Campaign • Political Philosophy • Political Science • Politician • Politics • Postdoctoral researcher • Prediction • Prejudice • Propaganda • psychologist • Psychology • Public Opinion • reason • Religion • Reputation • result • Rumor • sadness • scientific theory • Scientist • Shame • skepticism • Social Cost • Sophistication • Stotting • Suggestion • Supervisor • Symptom • theory • Thesis • Thought • To this Day • transubstantiation • Twitter • Vaccination • Voting • Wealth • Writing
• ISBN-10: 0-691-19884-5 / 0691198845
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-19884-2 / 9780691198842