Ben and Vaden test their French skills and have Hugo Mercier on the podcast to discuss who we trust and what we believe. Are humans gullible? Do we fall for propaganda and advertising campaigns? Do we follow expert consensus or forge ahead as independent thinkers? Can Vaden go for one episode without bringing up Trump?

Hugo Mercier is a research director at the CNRS (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris), where he work with the Evolution and Social Cognition team. Check out his two books: The Enigma of Reason and Not Born Yesterday .

We discuss

• Mercier's thoughts on the cognitive bias literature
• Open vigilance mechanisms
• Criticism of the System 1 vs System 2 dichotomy
• Why Kahneman misinterpreted the bat and the ball thought experiment
• Do flat earthers really believe the earth is flat?
• The Asch conformity experiment
• Preference falsification vs internalization of professed beliefs
• How important is social signaling?
• Trump, MAGA, gullibility, and Tariffs
• How effective are advertisements?
• How effective is propaganda?
• Is social science reforming?

References

• The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber
• Not Born Yesterday
  
• Our previous episodes on Not Born Yesterday and The Enigma of Reason

Socials

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How much system 2 thinking does it take to misunderstand system 1 vs system 2? Tell us at incrementspodcast@gmail.com