Misbelief

What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things

By: Dan Ariely

Narrated by: Simon Jones

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.

Great reasoning

Enjoyed his research into reasons for the misbelief, it’s the info that
Needs to gain more of an audience amongst conspiracy fans.

excellent analyis

While I really enjoyed it, I would have expected more advice towards how to handle disbelievers, with patience and emptathy
empathy.
All in all though, this is a very good description of current times mechanisms.

I hope more of my friends and compatriots read this book and understand each other better

This book is an amazing research conducted by Dan, who has been affected by the misbelievers. I hope such literature will help each of us to think and come up with better systems that will encourage trust environment versus the one we face today.

Outstanding Plan

This book is a must read and thoroughly full of hope. Beautiful research combined with his personal experiences and examples that I could identify with. Thank You.

Amazing science and an amazing story!

Must read for our current era! Ariely again explains how the ways we and others think impact everything.