Don’t Believe What They’re Telling You About
Misinformation
Sperber concluded that there are two kinds of beliefs.
The first he has called “factual” beliefs. Factual beliefs—such as the belief
that chairs exist and that leopards are dangerous—guide behavior and tolerate
little inconsistency; you can’t believe that leopards do and do not eat
livestock. The second category he has called “symbolic” beliefs. These beliefs
might feel genuine, but they’re cordoned off from action and expectation.…
Mercier, a cognitive scientist at the École Normale
Supérieure who studied under Sperber, argues that worries about human
gullibility overlook how skilled we are at acquiring factual beliefs. Our
understanding of reality matters, he notes. Get it wrong, and the consequences
can be disastrous. On top of that, people have a selfish interest in
manipulating one another. As a result, human beings have evolved a tool kit of
psychological adaptations for evaluating information—what he calls “open
vigilance mechanisms.”
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