Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things

by Dan Ariely Narrated by Simon Jones

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Written with accessibility and humor, Dan Ariely nonetheless tackles a very serious subject — misinformation. With a background in behavioral sciences, this is the authority in the subject that we've needed to make sense of it all.

The renowned social scientist, professor, and bestselling author of Predictably Irrational delivers his most urgent and compelling book-an eye-opening exploration of the human side of the misinformation crisis-examining what drives otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs.

Misinformation affects all of us on a daily basis-from social media to larger political challenges, from casual conversations in supermarkets, to even our closest relationships. While we recognize the dangers that misinformation poses, the problem is complex-far beyond what policing social media alone can achieve-and too often our limited solutions are shaped by partisan politics and individual interpretations of truth.

In Misbelief, preeminent social scientist Dan Ariely argues that to understand the irrational appeal of misinformation, we must first understand the behavior of “misbelief”-the psychological and social journey that leads people to mistrust accepted truths, entertain alternative facts, and even embrace full-blown conspiracy theories. Misinformation, it turns out, appeals to something innate in all of us-on the right*and*the left-and it is only by understanding this psychology that we can blunt its effects. Grounded in years of study as well as Ariely's own experience as a target of disinformation, Misbelief is an eye-opening and comprehensive analysis of the psychological drivers that cause otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs. Utilizing the latest research, Ariely reveals the key elements-emotional, cognitive, personality, and social-that drive people down the funnel of false information and mistrust, showing how under the right circumstances, anyone can become a misbeliever.

Yet Ariely also offers hope. Even as advanced artificial intelligence has become capable of generating convincing fake news stories at an unprecedented scale, he shows that awareness of these forces fueling misbelief make us, as individuals and as a society, more resilient to its allure. Combating misbelief requires a strategy rooted not in conflict, but in empathy. The sooner we recognize that misbelief is above all else a human problem, the sooner we can become the solution ourselves.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2023 - AudioFile

Narrating this chatty and informative audiobook, Simon Jones delivers a flawless performance full of lively interpretations and emotional resonance. The acclaimed British actor is enormously entertaining to hear, but he never steals the spotlight from the author's conversational writing and fascinating insights. The social scientist says conspiracy believers fall into an increasingly rigid funnel of disinformation because of emotional, cognitive, personality, and social factors such as unmanageable stress, insecure social connections, anger, and a desire for more order in their world. Once in the funnel, they become trapped in a social system of shared beliefs that provides status, affirmation, and secure belonging. Ariely offers suggestions to mitigate how "misbelievers" diminish the trust needed for a cohesive society to function. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

In this thoughtful, moving, and well-written book, Dan Ariely narrates his personal and professional journey to understand the world of misbelievers and conspiracy theories, and offers insights and tips that will hopefully help all of us protect our fragile social fabric from being torn apart by disinformation and distrust.”  — Yuval Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens

“Misbelief is an urgent examination of the human attraction to misinformation. This timely book can provide a crucial foundation for building a more empathetic and informed society.” — Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret

“Once again Dan Ariely writes in a way that gets us to think and reflect about our human nature. In Misbelief, he helps us understand the nature of our opinions, how they’re formed, and how the forces of misinformation can distort them. This is an important book for those who want to understand themselves and the increasingly complex world around us.” — Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

“For most of us it is tempting to think that people misbelieve things because they are uneducated, unintelligent, or misinformed. But as one of the world’s leading scientists studying beliefs, Dan Ariely, convincingly demonstrates in this important book—and as he discovered firsthand in being wrongly accused of leading a nefarious conspiracy!—misbelief is a process to which any of us can fall prey. More important, he offers science-based suggestions on what we can do about the polarization and breakdown in trust that comes with misbelief.”  — Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational

“Combining remarkable personal stories and scientific data, Dan walks us through a fascinating journey into the minds of those who choose to believe untruths. Misbelief provides a highly valuable perspective that serves to help navigate and discern our modern world view.”  — Jesse L. Martin, actor and star of NBC’s The Irrational

"A rigorous but also deeply compassionate book: Ariely’s goal isn’t to condemn people who fall for misinformation, but to show the reader how easy it is to believe the irrational. The book asks us to foreground empathy to reexamine some of our own beliefs." — Booklist

Kirkus Reviews

2023-07-05
The well-known psychologist and behavioral economist explores the rabbit holes that lead to conspiracy theories and other brands of irrational thought.

Duke psychology professor Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, Payoff, and other books, begins by chronicling how he was accused of being a shill for big pharma and the “Deep State” for supporting Covid-19 vaccination. Why him? The conspiratorial echo chamber, he notes, searches high and low for heretics, aided by “technology, politics, [and] economics.” The technology is beyond individual control, the politics and economics thorny, and the battle against what Ariely characterizes as misbelief, “a distorted lens through which people begin to view the world,” is endless. Too many people are not just suckers for misinformation; they go out of their way to perpetuate it. As Ariely explains, it’s easy for a person to become ostracized by peers and family for believing that the Illuminati or lizard people control the Earth and, once ostracized, to double down, feeling persecuted and isolated, in a kind of rolling martyr complex. It’s difficult to reason with someone battered by precarity, stress, and loneliness—and if nothing else, holding outlandish ideas will earn people a place in a community thanks to, yes, technology. Still, the author urges us to try the best we can. “Providing reassurance to someone in stressful circumstances can make a big difference,” he writes, and introducing talking points designed to increase “intellectual humility,” or the ability to admit that it’s possible that one is wrong, may help, too. Empathetic but not overly soft, Ariely counsels readers to try to understand why ostracism won’t do the trick, why social roles help drive extreme emotions and polarization, and why dealing with the “funnel of misbelief” is a proposition both staggeringly challenging and wholly necessary.

For those inclined to engage, a useful handbook for dealing with the pizza-and-pedophilia devotee of the family.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178064887
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	669,665

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