HighBridge Audio

Skip to Main Content »

Category Navigation:

Search Site
 

Foolproof

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Social Sciences
Unabridged   10.25 hour(s)
Publication date: 05/16/2023

Foolproof

Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Digital Download ISBN:9781696611275

Summary

In Foolproof, one of the world’s leading experts on misinformation lays out a crucial new paradigm for understanding and defending ourselves against the worldwide infodemic.

Be the first to review this product
Email to a Friend


Product Description

From fake news to conspiracy theories, from inflammatory memes to misleading headlines, misinformation has swiftly become the defining problem of our era. The crisis threatens the integrity of our democracies, our ability to cultivate trusting relationships, even our physical and psychological well-being—yet most attempts to combat it have proven insufficient.

With remarkable clarity, Sander van der Linden explains why our brains are so vulnerable to misinformation. Like a virus, misinformation infects our minds, exploiting shortcuts in how we see and process information to alter our beliefs, modify our memories, and replicate at astonishing rates. Once the virus takes hold, it's very hard to cure.

But we aren't helpless. As van der Linden shows based on award-winning original research, we can cultivate immunity through the innovative science of "prebunking": inoculating people against false information by preemptively exposing them to a weakened dose, thus empowering them to identify and fend off its manipulative tactics. Deconstructing the characteristic techniques of conspiracies and misinformation, van der Linden gives listeners practical tools to defend themselves and others against nefarious persuasion—whether at scale or around their own dinner table.

Author Bio

Sander van der Linden is professor of social psychology in society at the University of Cambridge and a regular advisor to governments and social media companies on fighting misinformation. His research has been featured in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He lives in Cambridge, UK.