Misbelief What makes rational people believe irrational things

Social scientist Ariely (Irrationally Yours, 2015; Dollars and Sense, 2017) has spent years focusing on the way we often embrace ideas that are irrational, and here he turns his attention to misinformation specifically. Based in part on the author's own experiences as the target of deliberate disinformation--with seemingly rational people believing lies about him--the book is an insightful examination of the underlying psychological factors that bolster misinformation's appeal. It covers our natural tendency to accept ideas that reinforce our own beliefs (and to dismiss those that contradict them), and the way the spread of misinformation is reshaping our society. Ariely is a persuasive writer, offering plenty of anecdotal examples to bolster his arguments and show how misinformation alters people's lives. It's 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. For some readers, the results could be eye-opening.

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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.