Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe
by Hugo Mercier
ISBN 13: 978-0691208923
Book description

Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believeā€•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 persuasionā€•whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisersā€•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 failuresā€•when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicineā€•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.


Recommended on 1 episode:

A Theory of Media That Explains 15 Years of Politics
In 2016, when Donald Trump won the first time, a little-known book became an unexpected phenomenon. It was ā€œThe Revolt of the Public,ā€ self-published two years earlier by a former C.I.A. media analyst, Martin Gurri. Gurri, who is now a visiting research fellow at the Mercatus Center, argued that a revolution in how information flowed was driving political upheavals in country after country: The dynamics of modern media ecosystems naturally created distrust toward institutions and elites, and this was fueling waves of revolt against the status quo. The problem, though, was that though these dynamics could destroy existing political systems, they could not build enduring replacements. Gurriā€™s book has been on my mind over the past year. In some ways, it explains 2024 better than it explains 2016. But time didnā€™t just change Gurriā€™s book; it changed Gurri. After refusing to cast a ballot for president in 2016 and 2020, he voted for Donald Trump in 2024. And in his writing for The Free Press, The New York Post and elsewhere, heā€™s been arguing that Trumpā€™s second term might herald the mastery of this new informational world and the emergence of an enduring new political system. I found myself more convinced by Gurriā€™s old theory than his new one. So I asked him on the show to talk about it. (Also: If youā€™re interested in joining Ezra Klein on his book tour in March and April, you can see the stops and get tickets for the events here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/abundance-tour)
Martin Gurri Feb. 25, 2025 3 books recommended
View
by @zachbellay