The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths Cover
Podcast Mentions

The Believing Brain From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

Michael Shermer

Bestselling author Michael Shermer's comprehensive and provocative theory on how beliefs are born, formed, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.

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Quotes 12
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Freakonomics Radio

Podcast

Freakonomics Radio

Michael Shermer's book, 'The Believing Brain', was discussed in the context of how humans form beliefs, often relying on instinct and intuition rather than evidence, as related to conspiracy theories and skepticism.

"

His latest is called The Believing Brain.

— Episode: 50. The Truth Is Out There…Isn’t It?

Episode: 50. The Truth Is Out There…Isn’t It?

Michael Shermer's book, 'The Believing Brain', was discussed in the context of how humans form beliefs, often relying on instinct and intuition rather than evidence, as related to conspiracy theories and skepticism.

"

His latest is called The Believing Brain.

StarTalk Radio

Podcast

StarTalk Radio

It was mentioned by Neil deGrasse Tyson and discussed how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths, including topics like ghosts, gods, politics, and conspiracies.

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You've written many books most recently The Moral Ark but that's not why we called you it's because in 2011 you wrote a book The Believing Brain and then you had a really long subtitle I got to look t...

— Episode: The Science of Illusion with Penn & Tell...

Episode: The Science of Illusion with Penn & Teller

It was mentioned by Neil deGrasse Tyson and discussed how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths, including topics like ghosts, gods, politics, and conspiracies.

"

You've written many books most recently The Moral Ark but that's not why we called you it's because in 2011 you wrote a book The Believing Brain and then you had a really long subtitle I got to look this one up from ghosts and gods to politics and conspiracies how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths this sounds like you're just out to ruin everybody's day

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Podcast

The Jordan Harbinger Show

It was discussed in the context of how our brains are wired to seek out patterns and meaning, often leading to the confirmation of pre-existing beliefs, even when they're incorrect.

"

We've got confirmation bias, we've got different cognitive biases, and we have that deeply rooted human need for certainty that you write about in the believing brain, where the brain is that belief e...

— Episode: 492: Michael Shermer | Why We Believe We...

Episode: 492: Michael Shermer | Why We Believe Weird Things

It was discussed in the context of how our brains are wired to seek out patterns and meaning, often leading to the confirmation of pre-existing beliefs, even when they're incorrect.

"

We've got confirmation bias, we've got different cognitive biases, and we have that deeply rooted human need for certainty that you write about in the believing brain, where the brain is that belief engine and we look for things like patterns and try to find meaning in them.

...the brain looks for patterns and then infuses those patterns with meaning and you write that our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen and these patterns become beliefs.

In the book, the crux of which is that we believe first and then seek confirmation for our beliefs later.

...we believe first and then seek confirmation for our beliefs later...

...you talk about how smart people stick to beliefs even more because they're better at rationalizing those same beliefs...

Episode: 492: Michael Shermer | Why We Believe Weird Things

It was discussed how the book details how the human brain is a belief engine, seeking patterns and meaning to form conclusions, often driven by confirmation bias.

"

We've got confirmation bias, we've got different cognitive biases, and we have that deeply rooted human need for certainty that you write about in the believing brain, where the brain is that belief engine and we look for things like patterns and try to find meaning in them.

In the book, the crux of which is that we believe first and then seek confirmation for our beliefs later.

In the believing brain, you talk about how smart people stick to beliefs even more because they're better at rationalizing those same beliefs.

And you write that our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen and these patterns become beliefs.

As you wrote in the book, even pigeons are superstitious, as per some of the experiments that you run, which I think is kind of amazing.

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