Not Born Yesterday

Why people are not as gullible as we think

Not Born Yesterday 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.

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.

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.

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PRAISE FOR NOT BORN YESTERDAY

"Too many scientists, journalists, and everyday readers have concluded that human beings are irredeemably irrational and gullible (except them, of course). Hugo Mercier, one of the world's experts on human rationality, shows that this harsh judgment on our species is premature and exaggerated. Not Born Yesterday is a fascinating and important book for our time."

Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

"This is an extraordinarily impressive book. Mercier demolishes one of our cherished beliefs, the idea that (other) humans are naturally gullible, an illusion that is entrenched in popular opinion and has been a mainstay of academic psychology for decades."

Pascal Boyer, author of Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create

"Most psychologists and political scientists will tell you that the average person is a patsy and a dupe, easily swayed by demagogues and charlatans, a sucker for Fake News and conspiracy theories. How else can you explain anti-vaxxers, or cases of mass hysteria and widespread delusions, or the many Americans who think that Obama is a Muslim and that Hilary Clinton ran a pedophile ring outside of a Washington pizza joint? In this sharp, engaging, and very entertaining book, the cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier presents a very different picture of human nature. Drawing on evolutionary theory, psychological experiments, and historical case-studies, he ably defends the alternative that we are rational and skeptical beings, and shows that claims to the contrary have little empirical support. “Not born yesterday” is original, provocative, and a true delight to read."

Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology, Yale University, and author of, most recently, “Against Empathy: The case for rational compassion.”

“Smart, funny, and—well—reasonable, Mercier’s Not Born Yesterday is a well-reasoned book about how we reason about what people say. With the evolution of language, our ancestors became open-minded animals who speak, listen, and learn from others. To unlock the benefits of this superpower, did natural selection turn our ancestors into the credulous followers of powerful and prestigious people—so that we, their descendants, are now the gullible pawns of demagogues, propaganda machines, advertisers, and creepy internet companies?

No, says Mercier: Language could not have evolved if we were easily exploited by dishonest messages. It had to co-evolve with reasoning mechanisms that make us vigilant about what and who to believe. In Not Born Yesterday, you learn the best arguments and evidence for human gullibility—and where they go wrong. With clear-eyed logic and mountains of evidence, Mercier tells us what kind of “fact-checking” mechanisms we evolved, when they will fail to reject nonsense, and why the consequences of this failure are rarely as dire as we fear.”

Leda Cosmides, Distinguished Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Co-director, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara

"In the age of fake news, Mercier's stimulating and challenging book shows that the common idea that people are just gullible is fake wisdom. An eye-opener!"

Gloria Origgi, CNRS senior researcher at the Jean Nicod Institute, author of "Reputation: What it is and why it matters."

"An excellent read. Mercier's elegantly written book is a welcome antidote to the academic and popular literature that depicts people as hopelessly irrational and gullible."

Stefaan Blancke, coeditor of Perspectives on Science and Culture

"A bracing book that might make you less gullible about gullibility."

Barbara Kiser Nature

"Mercier’s insights may help us learn more about why we can get things wrong. At the risk of being seen as credulous, I’d say he makes a strong case for gullibility being a far less prevalent and important trait than we thought."

Nic Fleming New Scientist

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