Not Born Yesterday - by Hugo Mercier (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe-and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions."--Publisher's description.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>Why people are not as gullible as we think</b> <p/><i>Not Born Yesterday</i> 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. <p/>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. <p/><i>Not Born Yesterday</i> 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.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>[A] lucidly written introduction to the social psychology of communication and reasoning.<b>---Shreeharsh Kelkar, <i>Public Books</i></b><br><br>At a time when large swaths seem to believe that we are hopelessly doomed because everyone else is stupid and easily misled or manipulated, Mercier's book provides a nuanced antidote to such thinking, grounded in a careful examination of a wealth of evidence from psychology and the social sciences.<b>---Felix Simon, <i>Medium</i></b><br><br>[A] thought-provoking book about the science of who we trust.-- "Paradigm Explorer"<br><br>[<i>Not Born Yesterday</i>] marshals a convincing body of research . . . from history and sociology, from anthropology and from the psychology laboratory.<b>---Timandra Harkness, <i>UnHerd</i></b><br><br>[<i>Not Born Yesterday</i>] will be of interest to anyone who wonders how to trust what people say and do, especially in the digital, free-for-all age of unfettered, often suspect, information. The breadth and depth of research studies presented by Mercier will be especially appealing to science aficionados.<b>---Karen Koenig, <i>New York Journal of Books</i></b><br><br>[Mercier's argument] is refreshingly optimistic.<b>---Daniel Akst, <i>Strategy+Business</i></b><br><br>A bracing book that might make you less gullible about gullibility.<b>---Barbara Kiser, <i>Nature</i></b><br><br>In <i>Not Born Yesterday</i>, the cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier brings the conceptual reversal to a domain in desperate need of new insights: that of truth and falsehood, knowledge and ignorance.<b>---N. J. Enfield, <i>Times Literary Supplement</i></b><br><br>At the risk of being seen as credulous, I'd say [Mercier] makes a strong case for gullibility being a far less prevalent and important trait than we thought.-- "New Scientist"<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Hugo Mercier</b> is a cognitive scientist at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris and the coauthor of <i>The Enigma of Reason</i>. He lives in Nantes, France. Twitter @hugoreasoning
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