Cover photo: Tommes Frites (Pexels)
The Truth Only a Few Can See (Or So They Think)
Why fanaticism doesn't need evidence — it just needs the feeling that you belong to the chosen few.
About
Why do two people, with access to the same information, end up believing completely opposite things — and why does no argument seem to change their minds?
This audiobook follows the thread from the algorithms that reward outrage, through the psychology of losing control, to the most important piece of all: the need to feel like one of the few who "know the truth." With real research (Whitson & Galinsky, More in Common's "Perception Gap," Lantian's studies on the need for uniqueness) and no easy answers, an attempt to understand why fanaticism feels so good — and what we actually lose when we let it go.
Sources
- Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). "The spread of true and false news online." Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.
- Whitson, J. A., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008). "Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception." Science, 322(5898), 115-117.
- More in Common (2019). "The Perception Gap."
- Lantian, A., Muller, D., Nurra, C., & Douglas, K. M. (2017). "'I Know Things They Don't Know!': The Role of Need for Uniqueness in Belief in Conspiracy Theories." Social Psychology, 48(3), 160-173.
- van Prooijen, J.-W., & Douglas, K. M. (2018). "Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain." European Journal of Social Psychology, 48(7), 897-908.
- Pew Research Center. Reports on political content concentration among highly active social media users.
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