An interesting book by Dan Ariely about understanding misbelief

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2023 Dan Ariely published an interesting book titled MISBELIEF: What makes rational people believe irrational things. He discusses how people wind up going into a funnel, where their misbeliefs trap them. There are sections about the emotional, cognitive, personality, and social elements of misbelief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The graphics shown above summarize these four elements. There is lots of jargon here about biases, like confirmation and hindsight.  In the first summary on emotional elements he says that:

 

“Complex stories satisfy the ‘proportionality bias’ which tells us that a large or intense problem must have large causes.”

 

Today is the sixtieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which has led to lots of complex conspiracy theories – involving players like the CIA, the Mafia, Fidel Castro, etc. and various combinations.