Understanding Misbelief

—Avoiding nonsense

Alice challenged the queen who believed six impossible things before breakfast.

Introduction

Perhaps Mark Twain said it best: “It ain’t so much the things that people don’t know that makes trouble in this world, as it is the things that people know that ain’t so.”

Why do people believe things that aren’t true? From conspiracy theories to urban legends, from pseudoscience to historical distortions, misbeliefs shape the way individuals and societies interpret the world. This course is designed to explore the psychological, social, and cultural forces that drive false beliefs and their persistence. Through a blend of philosophy, cognitive science, and real-world case studies, we will examine how misbeliefs form, why they spread, and what strategies can help foster critical thinking and truth-seeking. Whether you’re interested in debunking myths, understanding human cognition, or navigating today’s complex information landscape, this course will provide valuable insights into the nature of belief—and how to distinguish fact from fiction.

Misbeliefs are common and troublesome. We can learn to reduce their origination, spread, and harm.

Approach misbeliefs as you would a burning candle; look but don’t touch.

Objectives

The objectives of this course are to help students:

• Avoid the temptations of misbeliefs.
• Understand various motivations and benefits for holding misbeliefs and true beliefs;
• Foster intellectual humility—an awareness of the limits of our knowledge;
• Find the courage and wisdom to embrace ambiguity.
• Transition from rigidly held beliefs to more carefully considered firmly held beliefs.
• Understand the many mechanisms that foster misbelief including: motivations, benefits, vulnerabilities, and skills;
• Reduce the prevalence, allure, and spread of misbeliefs;
• Choose true beliefs; and
• Choose to abandon unhelpful misbeliefs.

This course has no prerequisites, and all students are welcome. Several companion courses are available that can help students gain additional background or bolster their understanding of various concepts and techniques useful in evaluating information.

These include:

• Facing Facts — Embracing Reality
• Evaluating Journalism Standards — Seeking reliable information sources
• Evaluating Information — Fact or Fiction?
• Embracing Ambiguity —Keep thinking
• Intellectual Honesty — Accurately communicating true beliefs
• Virtues/Good Faith – The virtue of truthfulness
• Forming Beliefs — Evaluating what you accept as true
• Knowing how you know
• Seeking True Beliefs —Excellence in the Quest for Knowledge
• Evaluating Evidence — Seeking Reality
• Navigating Social Proof —Going along to get along

Study these companion courses any time they may be helpful. Specific companion course suggestions appear in relevant sections throughout this course.

How Sure Are You?

Most of us believe we are reliable judges of what is true and what is false, distinguishing between fact and fiction, myth and reality. We hold numerous beliefs that we consider either true or false. Some of these beliefs are essential to us because they shape our identities, friendships, and communities. One objective of this course is to challenge that assumption and to foster intellectual humility—an awareness of the limits of our knowledge

Assignment:

1. Consider the statements in this list of popular beliefs.
2. Choose several to rate according to your degree of certainty.
3. Are you mostly certain or uncertain of the accuracy of these statements?
4. Study the section on Firmness in the Wikiversity course on Seeking True Beliefs.
5. Work to hold your well-considered beliefs firmly rather than flaccidly or rigidly.
6. Optionally study the Wikiversity courses on Knowing How You Know, Seeking True Beliefs, and Embracing Ambiguity.
7. For each statement that you marked as definitely true or definitely false, research the correct statement using reliable sources and by carefully evaluating evidence.

Characterizing Misbelief

For the purposes of this course, a misbelief is a rigidly held belief that individuals prefer over a true belief. Misbelievers are people who hold such misbeliefs. Misbelievers who share similar misbeliefs may engage in discussions, debates, and the exchange of those beliefs within cults, develop conspiracy theories, or firmly adhere to various pseudoscientific claims, hoaxes or ideologies.

A misbelief differs from a misunderstanding because it is rigidly held, and resists correction despite evidence that falsifies the misbelief. Certainty displaces curiosity and doubt in sustaining misbelief.

A misbelief is based on a worldview that is not aligned with the best available understanding of reality.

Prevalence

How many people are misbelievers?

In August 2004, a poll by Zogby International showed that 49 percent of New York City residents, with a margin of error of 3.5 percent, believed that officials of the U.S. government “knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act". In any case, roughly half the people have it wrong.

The Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories had a significant number of believes and had significant political impact.

In a Harris Poll online survey of 2,320 adults conducted in March 2010, 25% of the respondents said they believed that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president". In a July 2010 CNN poll of adult Americans, 16% said they had doubts that Obama was born in the United States, and a further 11% were certain that he was not.

A 2012 study found that 63 per cent of registered voters in the United States buy into at least one conspiracy theory

In May 2021 34% of the 1,230 respondents polled agreed with the statement “Elites, from government and Hollywood, are engaged in a massive child sex trafficking racket”.

Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory circulating widely online that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak. And a quarter of U.S. adults see at least some truth in it – including 5% who say it is definitely true and 20% who say it is probably true.

While boosting his career as a professional conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million in damages to the families of Sandy Hook victims for repeatedly spreading disproven conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, including claiming that it was a "false flag" operation perpetrated by gun control advocates, that "no one died" in Sandy Hook, and that the incident was "staged", "synthetic", "manufactured", "a giant hoax" and "completely fake with actors".

Several Fox programs had broadcast false statements that Dominion's voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 United States presidential election from then-president Donald Trump. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledged the court's earlier ruling that Fox had broadcast false statements about Dominion.

The Alure of Misbeliefs

Misbeliefs can be incredibly appealing despite being inaccurate or even harmful.  The allure of misbelief stems from deep psychological, social, and existential needs that make certain falsehoods more attractive than the truth.

Assignment

1. Read this essay on the Allure of misbelief.
2. What, if any, of the factors described in the essay attract you toward your rigidly held beliefs?
3. Read this essay on the Utility of Misbelief.
4. What, if any, of the factors described in the essay attract you toward your rigidly held beliefs?
5. Read this essay on a critical examination of the utility of misbelief.
6. Read this essay on the Benefits of True Beliefs.
7. Read the essay Facts Are Stubborn.
8. What factors motivate you toward misbeliefs or true beliefs?

Motivations

Beliefs shape how individuals interpret the world, influencing their actions, relationships, and overall worldview.  While truth is often held as the ultimate ideal, human psychology does not always prioritize factual accuracy. Instead, belief formation is deeply intertwined with emotional, social, and cognitive motivations. Misbeliefs—those that deviate from reality—persist not merely due to ignorance but because they fulfill fundamental human needs, such as connection, belonging, and a sense of special knowledge. In contrast, true beliefs often align with motivations related to competence, safety, and integrity. Understanding the competing motivations that drive misbeliefs and true beliefs can help explain why falsehoods are sometimes more appealing than reality and why truth remains an essential yet challenging pursuit.

Assignment

1. Read the essay Exploring Motivations for Misbelief and True beliefs.
2. Read the Socratic Dialogue Are true beliefs more useful than misbeliefs?
3. What motivates you to choose misbeliefs or true beliefs?

The Dangers of Misbelief

Beliefs shape how we interpret the world, make decisions, and interact with others. While well-founded beliefs based on evidence and rational analysis guide us toward truth and progress, misbeliefs—false, unfounded, or irrational convictions—pose significant dangers. Misbeliefs can distort reality, influence poor decision-making, fuel conflicts, and enable exploitation. In an era where misinformation spreads rapidly through digital networks, understanding the dangers of misbelief is crucial for both individuals and societies.

These dangers include poor decision-making, political and social polarization, exploitation and manipulation, societal and environmental harm, psychological and existential costs, among others.

Assignment

Read this essay describing the dangers of misbelief.

The Genesis of Misbeliefs

Several environmental conditions, cognitive features, personality factors, and social elements, make us vulnerable to rigidly holding onto misbeliefs. These are described in detail in the sections below.

Stress Sets the Stage

The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893)

Stress with its numerous causes and consequences, has a significant impact on our well-being. Stress is very common. A recent (2022) National Center for Health Statistics report, revealed that 21.4% of Americans report symptoms of anxiety disorder or depression disorder.

Stressors—events or conditions that cause stress—are more likely to affect the health of an individual when they are "chronic, highly disruptive, or perceived as uncontrollable". While there are various types of stressors, daily hassles and ambient stressors are the most common and prevalent in most adults.

While everyday stressors are a somewhat expected part of life, and most people manage to cope with them, unpredictable stress, arising from sudden or unforeseen events, can be particularly detrimental. These events are often perceived as uncontrollable and can impair our ability to think rationally and reflectively, making us susceptible to false beliefs.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an especially intense, extensive, and long-lasting source of unpredictable stress.

In general, humans don’t cope well with unpredictable stress. People may choose misbeliefs to help them cope with stress.

Stress, and especially unpredictable stress, may lead to the development of learned helplessness, discussed in the next section.

Assignment:

1. Browse this list of everyday stressors.
2. Identify sources of everyday stress that you encounter.
3. Browse this list of unpredictable stress.
4. Identify sources of unpredictable stress that you encounter.
5. Which, if any, of these stressors cause you to feel discouraged or even helpless?
6. Seek constructive approaches to reducing stress. The Wikiversity course on Finding Equanimity may be helpful.

Learned helplessness

Uncontrollable events, such as unpredictable stress, can lead to a condition called learned helplessness. This condition undermines a person’s agency and willingness to control events, even when there are available means of control.

Quoting Martin Seligman:

Not only do we face events that we can control by our actions, but we also face many events about which we can do nothing at all. Such uncontrollable events can significantly debilitate organisms: they produce passivity in the face of trauma, inability to learn that responding is effective, and emotional stress in animals, and possibly depression in man.

If enough unfortunate events beyond your control occur, you may eventually become overwhelmed and stop trying to help yourself. Your vitality and zest are gone, you are listless and discouraged, and you believe that nothing you do even matters. You have lost the struggle and learned to become helpless, and you are now passive and complacent even though you could take action to help yourself. Perhaps rethinking how you explain these events to yourself can help you cope better.

Uncontrollable events disrupt peoples' subsequent problem solving skills. How people choose to explain the causes of these bad events affect their response in a variety of ways, including motivation, emotion, cognition, and behavior. People tend to define the extent of their helplessness—their lack of control or incompetency—as being either pervasive or narrow, or short term or long term.

Various misbeliefs may seem to explain what is happening, identifying who or what is to blame, may suggest specific actions you can take, and provide you some control over adverse events in your life. It is now clear what is reallyhappening, who is to blame and what you can do about it. Misbeliefs help you regain control.

Assignment

1. Complete the Wikiversity course Sustaining Agency.
2. Avoid succumbing to learned helplessness by sustaining your agency.

Intergroup Conflict

Recent research suggests a possible reciprocal relationship between conspiracy theories and violent intergroup conflicts. Intergroup conflicts can strengthen belief in conspiracy theories, which, in turn, can radicalize the societies involved. This radicalization can hinder peaceful conflict resolution.

Assignment

1. Study the Wikiversity course Transcending Conflict.
2. Transcend conflict.

Misattributions

We are not good at identifying the causes of our stress.

As people seek to maintain control over their lives and understand what is happening in the word around them, they naturally seek to attribute various events to specific causes. Unfortunately, people often make mistakes and incorrectly attribute causes to various effects.

Attribution errors occur at various layers of our human interaction, including the emotional, personality, and cognitive layers of ourselves. This section will address misattributing emotions.

Experiments have shown that people often make a mistake in identifying the true cause of their arousal. For instance, when experiencing physiological responses associated with fear, individuals may mistakenly label those responses as romantic arousal. This error occurs because many stimuli share similar physiological symptoms, such as elevated blood pressure or shortness of breath.

More generally, many people lack skill in recognizing, interpreting, and responding constructively to emotions in themselves and others.

Assignment

1. Complete the Wikiversity course on recognizing emotions.
2. Practice accurately recognizing emotions as they arise in you and in others.
3. Optionally complete the Wikiversity curriculum on Emotional competency.
4. The guide to Studying Emotional Competency suggests a path for studying the emotional competency material and presents a thorough and orderly tour of the entire curriculum.
5. Improve your emotional competency.
6. Study the Wikiversity course on Attributing Blame.
7. Become accurate in attributing blame.

Scarcity Mindset

When you have too much on your mind, it is more difficult to think clearly, and you are more likely to make mental errors.

Research indicates that people experiencing insufficient resources can foster a “scarcity” mindset, where individuals focus excessively on the scarce resource, potentially neglecting other important aspects of their lives.

This scarcity mindset can result in a reduction in freely available mental resources—referred to as cognitive bandwidth—because they are being diverted to another task. In one study it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. The researchers suggest this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks.

Several studies show that scarcity, which ranges from external experiences of financial insecurity, a lack of time, or social isolation, can become an internalized mindset that inhibits cognitive functioning and effective coping. Analyses showed that experiencing scarcity was associated with pessimism and maladaptive forms of coping. Additionally, there was evidence for social support as a potential moderating factor for the consequences of scarcity.

In one study behavioral and neural evidence suggests that inducing a scarcity mindset significantly dampens the ability to empathize with others’ pain during both the early and late stages of empathic processing. These findings shed light on our understanding of how a scarcity mindset may influence social emotions and behaviors.

Assignment

1. Take care of yourself and others.
2. Maintain resilience, think clearly, find equanimity, and sustain your agency despite the turmoil in your life.

Economic Inequality

Economic inequality—a large difference in income and wealth between the richest and poorest people—has many effects that increase stress, including the direct negative effect of reducing social belonginess in a community while weakening people’s resilience.

Effects of income inequality, researchers have found, include higher rates of health and social problems, and lower rates of social goods, a lower population-wide satisfaction and happiness and even a lower level of economic growth when human capital is neglected for high-end consumption.

2013 Economics Nobel prize winner Robert J. Shiller said that rising inequality in the United States and elsewhere is the most important problem.

Assignment

1. Take care of yourself and others.
2. Maintain resilience, think clearly, find equanimity, and sustain your agency despite the turmoil in your life.

Unfair Treatment

People have no trouble complaining. Many can passionately recite their list of grievances whenever they find an audience, willing or not. Author and journalist Frank Bruni claims we are living in the age of grievance. To gain some sense of control over their daily hassles, unpredictable stress, and specific grievances, these aggrieved people find someone or something to blame. Each of these grievances is regarded as evidence of an injustice directed toward me. This is unfair I tell you! Because something has to change the injustice leads to anger, and retribution becomes imperative. Scapegoating becomes common, although the blame is typically unwarranted.

Assignment

1. Choose a grievance from this list of grievances or some other source to focus on for this assignment.
2. Write down the causes contributing to that grievance. Decide who to blame for the injustice.
   • How do you know? Explain the connection in detail.
   • Are you bristling from oppression because of this grievance? Why?
3. Complete the Wikiversity course on Attributing Blame.
4. Perform a careful cause-effect analysis to identify the many contributing causes of the chosen grievance.
   • Does this more careful analysis identify additional causes contributing to the chosen grievance?
5. If this grievance still makes you angry, complete the Wikiversity course on Resolving Anger.
6. Take care of yourself and others.
7. Maintain resilience, think clearly, find equanimity, and sustain your agency despite the turmoil in your life.

Connecting the Dots from Stress to Misbelief

Stress is an integral part of life, with everyday stressors often manageable. However, unpredictable stress, perceived as uncontrollable, can be particularly harmful. It impairs rational thinking and increases susceptibility to false beliefs.

Uncontrollable stress can lead to learned helplessness, where individuals lose the will to exert control even when solutions exist. Seeking to make sense of events, people often misattribute causes, struggling to identify the true sources of stress or recognize their emotions.

A scarcity mindset adds to this burden, diminishing problem-solving and resilience. Economic inequality intensifies stress by eroding social belonging and weakening resilience.

In response to stress and uncertainty, people often seek control by assigning blame, which can escalate to unwarranted scapegoating fueled by anger and the desire for retribution.

Resilience

Increasing resilience—the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis—can help to manage stress.

Many factors influence a person's level of resilience. Internal factors include personal characteristics such as self-esteem, self-regulation, and a positive outlook on life. External factors include social support systems, including relationships with family, friends, and community, as well as access to resources and opportunities.

Resilience is a "positive adaptation" to a stressful or adverse situation. When a person is "bombarded by daily stress, it disrupts their internal and external sense of balance, presenting challenges as well as opportunities." The routine stressors of daily life can have positive impacts, which promote resilience. Some people can handle stress better than others. Although different levels of stress vary among different individuals, stress allows people to practice resilience over time.

People who have developed secure attachment during childhood cope better because they are able to go through life knowing that if something bad happens, someone will be there to help out.

Social support is an important factor in the development of resilience. Social support requires solidarity and trust, intimate communication, and mutual obligation both within and outside the family and community.

Assignment

1. Read this list of suggestions for developing and sustaining resilience.
2. Employ tactics that you find effective in increasing your resilience.
3. Do your best to sustain your agency despite the turmoil in your life.

Assignment

Cope with stress, increase your resilience, and reduce misbeliefs by taking actions selected from the following list.

1. Take care. Give care.
2. Join communities (In real life).
3. Alleviate loneliness.
4. Improve your emotional competency.
5. Earn trust, grant trust, assume good faith.
6. Practice deep listening and dialogue.
7. Use Socratic methods to explore beliefs.
8. Think more clearly
   • Face Facts.
   • Evaluate evidence skillfully.
   • Evaluate journalism standards.
   • Evaluate information carefully.
   • Seek true beliefs.
   • Know how you know.
   • Think scientifically.
   • Align your worldview with reality.
   • Practice Socratic methods.
   • Expect intellectual honesty from yourself and others.

Naming the Villain

Villains are often the centerpiece of a good story. Without villains there are no heroes, and bringing the scoundrel to justice restores order and decency to our world.  

In storytelling, the villain’s structural purpose is to oppose the hero character. Their motives or evil actions drive the plot forward. Unlike the hero, who is defined by their ingenuity, bravery, pursuit of justice, and the greater good, a villain is often characterized by their selfishness, evilness, arrogance, cruelty, and cunning. These immoral behaviors can either oppose or pervert justice.

You can become the hero by identifying and destroying the villain.

The search for the villain is an adventure that puts the detectives in control.

Furthermore, research suggest perceived intention influences the experience of pain.^, Attributing evil intent to the villain increases the pain felt by the victim.

Assignment

1. Practice intellectual humility to acknowledge doubts that you have correctly identified the villain, and the villain intended to hurt you.
2. Embrace ambiguity so you can be comfortable in not identifying a villain, embracing complexity, continuing the investigation, and seeking a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the problem and possible solutions.
3. Study the Wikiversity course on Attributing Blame.
4. Become accurate in attributing blame.

Complex Stories are Fun

Conspiracy theories are often remarkably complex. For example, with a notable lack of intellectual humility,  David Robert Grimes estimates that:

• A Moon landing hoax would require the involvement of 411,000 people and would be exposed within 3.68 years;
• Climate-change fraud would require a minimum of 29,083 people (published climate scientists only) and would be exposed within 26.77 years, or up to 405,000 people, in which case it would be exposed within 3.70 years;
• A vaccination conspiracy would require a minimum of 22,000 people (without drug companies) and would be exposed within at least 3.15 years and at most 34.78 years depending on the number involved;
• A conspiracy to suppress a cure for cancer would require 714,000 people and would be exposed within 3.17 years.

Complex stories are appealing because there is always more to discover and more to tell. Just as serial adventures end each episode with a cliff hanger, curiosity, surprise, and attention are manipulated as each new twist and turn of the story is revealed over time. The conspiracy theorist is captivated as the story unfolds.

Furthermore, conspiracy theory rhetoric exploits several important cognitive biases, including proportionality bias, attribution bias, and confirmation bias.

The proportionality bias, also known as major event/major cause heuristic, is the tendency to assume that big events have big causes. It is a type of cognitive bias and plays an important role in people's tendency to accept conspiracy theories. Academic psychologist Rob Brotherton summarizes it as "When something big happens, we tend to assume that something big must have caused it".

In psychology, an attribution bias is a cognitive error that occurs when individuals systematically deviate from rationality and normality in evaluating or attempting to find reasons for their own and others’ behaviors. This bias leads to perceptual distortions, inaccurate assessments, and illogical interpretations of events and behaviors.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs.

The complexity of conspiracy theories also makes them attractive because of the unique knowledge required to fully understand them. Because only the ingroup knows the real truth about what happened, they attain special social status and share a special bond.

Kayfabe

Kayfabe characters Sgt Slaughter and The Grand Wizard in a wrestling ring

In professional wrestling, kayfabe is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. The term kayfabe has evolved to also become a code word of sorts for maintaining this "reality" within the direct or indirect presence of the general public.

The interplay of truth and fantasy generates a unique appeal for some audiences. The allure of some misbeliefs may be like the allure of kayfabe.

Assignment

Three heuristics, called razors, can help evaluate and cast doubt on various conspiracy theories. Apply each of these three razors to assess the credibility of any proposed conspiracy theory and use them to cut through the nonsense.

1. Occam's razor—paraphrased as “The simplest explanation is usually the best one”—is a problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.
2. Halon’s razor states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
3. Hitchens’s razor states: “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”

Fear Becomes Hate and Moral Outrage

People who share misbeliefs form an in-group based on sharing those misbeliefs. The shared (mis)beliefs, unique knowledge and insights, and the common experiences of being different, ostracism and persecution help to bond the group. Those who doubt your deeply held (mis)beliefs are threat and form an out-group.

Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group, and it may manifest itself in suspicion of one group's activities by members of the other group, a desire to eliminate the presence of the group that is the target of suspicion, and fear of losing a national, ethnic, or racial identity.

Simplistically, xenophobia is the belief that foreigners are inherently to be feared. This belief can easily lead to a logical fallacy, where if one is fearful, then foreigners are to blame. Consequently—by this simplistic and fallacious logic—it becomes acceptable to hate and discriminate against the dangerous foreigners who are causing the feared conditions.

Rather than thinking more clearly, seeking to understand others, finding common ground, or seeking to overcome hate, these misbelievers emphasize their hatred, and dismiss others as morally repulsive.

Taken to extremes, the morally outrageous people who dare to dismiss your misbeliefs are not to be forgiven.

Assignment

1. Separate your concern for the person from the beliefs they hold.
2. Seek to understand others who hold differing beliefs.
3. Find common ground.
4. Overcome hate; refuse to hate.

Entertainment

The Heroes Journey

Stories—real and imagined—of various hero’s journeys have fascinated people for thousands of years. Searching for the real causes of grievances is no exception. This is fun, this is adventure, this is entertainment!

Each grievance is a compelling call to adventure. Foreseeing the difficulty, wise heroes may be reluctant to begin the journey. But eventually, the hero refuses to be treated unfairly anymore. This raw deal must end. The injustice must be set right. Leaving behind the delusional comfort of the mainstream narrative, the hero crosses the threshold and enters the realm of his fellow misbelievers.

Leaving the warnings, safety, and comfort of the conventional folk behind, he commits to search for the true causes of his grievance, and is now all in. The transformation is underway, there is no going back now. The game is on. The investigation is captivating. The drama continues to unfold. The villains must be found and brought to justice! The revelations are sensational! Obstacles provided by public opinion, conventional wisdom, logic, and  overwhelming evidence test his resolve, yet he continues the quest undaunted.

His clever and original research begins to identify inconsistencies in the mainstream narrative, and he soon uncovers conclusive evidence to explain the true causes of his grievance. He dismisses the many doubters who test his resolve and try to deter him, but he will not be deterred by temptations.

He is now seeing beyond illusions, he sees clearly, and finally grasps a greater understanding of how the world really works. His goal is achieved! He begins to contemplate returning to the mainstream with his new insights. Does he dare to share his new and powerful insights with conventional folk, or is he content to guard his new wisdom and share it only with his clan of true believers?

After deep thought, he decides the world must know; they must be warned, but it will not be easy, he may need help. He begins to build rapport with conventional folk, even as he works to appease his clan concerned about his consorting with the enemy.

Whether or not his new revelations are accepted by the mainstream, the hero is now free to live his life content with his new insights. He has transcended the limitations of conventional narratives and embraced a new perspective that allows him to see the world with greater clarity and insight.

It is all great fun!

Assignment

1. Recognize that the best story often wins, even if it is fanciful and clearly untrue.
2. Enjoy the kayfabe—the portrayal of staged events as “real” or “true”—but don’t mistake the theatrics for reality.
3. Improve your skills at evaluating evidence.
4. Think clearly
5. Know how you know.

Characteristics of Cognition

Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, imagination, intelligence, the formation of knowledge, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and computation, problem-solving and decision-making, comprehension and production of language. Cognitive processes use existing knowledge to discover new knowledge.

Humans are remarkable, complex, intricate systems, and our brains are not objective, mechanical tools for directing attention, making observations, perceiving our surroundings, recalling past experiences, and drawing sound conclusions. Certain traits of human cognition make us vulnerable to misconceptions. These are elaborated upon below.

Forming Beliefs

People form their beliefs through a complex interplay of personal experiences, cultural influences, evidence, and introspection, creating a rich diversity in perspectives. Beliefs often stem from deeply held values, such as widely recognized moral standards or more unique principles that resonate on an individual level. These beliefs may originate in childhood, shaped by family, education, and society, but they evolve over time through self-reflection, exposure to new ideas, and life’s challenges. The alignment of beliefs with values, evidence, and actions is essential for authenticity, fostering a sense of purpose and coherence in life. Examining these foundations helps individuals understand themselves, adapt to new insights, and find meaning, contributing to a life that feels both consistent and fulfilling.

Intellectual Virtues Overcome Vices

Several characteristics of human nature and the way we think make it easy to mistake false beliefs for true beliefs. These include cognitive biases, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, soldier mindset, social proof, illusory truth effect, overconfidence, the illusion of explanatory depth, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and other intellectual vices.

The Wikiversity course on Forming Beliefs describes these characteristics in more depth.

Solution Aversion

Upton Sinclair famously observed “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” This is an example of solution aversion—the tendency to deny evidence if acknowledging it will lead to an unacceptable consequence.

More formally, the solution aversion model predicts that certain solutions associated with problems (e.g., government, regulation) are more aversive and more threatening to individuals who hold an ideology that is incompatible with or even challenged by the solution, and this increases skepticism of the problems’ existence.

Examples include a tendency to deny climate change when the proposed solutions my require more regulations or result in fewer jobs. Another example is skepticism of school shootings motivated by a fear that they will lead to increased gun control.

Assignment

1. Study the Wikiversity course Forming beliefs.
2. Beware of the many difficulties people face when forming beliefs.
3. Avoid brain rot.
4. Practice the intellectual virtues and seek true beliefs.
5. Work to allow the intellectual virtues to prevail over the intellectual vices.

Personalities

An Architecture for Human Interaction

Humans live, behave, and interact at several layers, illustrated in the diagram on the right and described in the Wikiversity course on Layers of Human Interaction. Attempting to using reason to influence another’s beliefs, values, or choices is an appeal at the cognitive layer of human interaction. Using repetition and rewards to create or elicit conditioned responses or to create or strengthen memories modifies learned responses.

Underlying these levels are our personality traits, the intrinsic differences that make us each the unique person we are. These stable characteristics remain primarily constant throughout our adult life.

The five-factor model of personality identifies five factors and ten values characterizing personality types. These five factors and ten values (describing the extremes of each factor) are as follows:

• openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
• conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
• extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
• agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/judgmental)
• neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)

Research by Johnathan Haidt, reported in his book The Righteous Mind, and described in his moral foundations theory, has shown that people vary in their moral judgements and political ideologies in predictable ways based on their personality types. For example, he has found that “Liberals score higher on measures of neophilia (also known as “openness to experience”), not just for new foods but also for new people, music, and ideas. Conservatives are higher on neophobia; they prefer to stick with what’s tried and true, and they care a lot more about guarding borders, boundaries, and traditions.”

In short, holding liberal or conservative political views is largely a result of personality differences!

Recognizing that personality traits are largely intrinsic traits determined by heredity, warns us that these views are very difficult to change.

Chapters 7 and 8 of the book Misbelief, identify other individual differences that increase susceptibility to misbelief. These include susceptibility to:

1. False recall and False recognition,
2. Magical thinking,
3. Openness to absorbing and Hypnotic susceptibility,
4. Perceptual aberrations,
5. Patternicity (Apophenia),
6. Lack of intellectual humility,
7. Fixed mindset,
8. Narcissism, and
9. Decision making errors including the conjunction fallacy, illusory correlation, and hindsight bias.

Each of these characteristics are described in more detail below.

False Recall and False Recognition:

In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory.

Several natural factors vary the susceptibility of a person to form false memories. These include individual differences in creative imagination, and variations in perceived social pressure. Other factors include a history of trauma relevant to the false memory, sleep deprivation, and false memory syndrome.  

Magical Thinking

Saint Peter Attempting to Walk on Water (1766), painting by François Boucher

Magical thinking, or superstitious thinking, is the belief that unrelated events are causally connected despite the absence of any plausible causal link between them, particularly because of supernatural effects. Examples include the idea that personal thoughts can influence the external world without acting on them, or that objects must be causally connected if they resemble each other or have come into contact with each other in the past. Magical thinking is a type of fallacious thinking and is a common source of invalid causal inferences. Unlike the confusion of correlation with causation, magical thinking does not require the events to be correlated.

Hypnotic susceptibility and Fantasy-prone personality

Hypnotic susceptibility measures how easily a person can be hypnotized. Individuals highly susceptible to hypnosis tend to have distinctive characteristics outside of hypnosis. In 1981, Sherl Wilson and T X Barber reported that most of a group of individuals extremely susceptible to hypnosis who they termed "fantasizers" exhibited a cluster of traits consisting of: 1) fantasizing much of the time, 2) reporting their imagery was as vivid as real perceptions, 3) having physical responses to their imagery, 4) having an earlier than average age for first childhood memory, 5) recalling "imaginary playmates" from childhood, and 6) having grown up with parents who encouraged imaginative play.

Perceptual Aberrations

Perceptual aberrations encompass a range of unusual sensory experiences, including feeling that body parts are changing shape, merging with external objects, or a distorted sense of body ownership. These experiences are commonly reported in individuals with psychotic disorders, especially schizophrenia.

"Perceptual aberrations, including the sensation that one's organs are rotting, feeling that the body is unreal or that the shape and size of body parts are changing or merging with external objects, and altered sense of bodily ownership are common in psychosis"

Patternicity (Apophenia)

Christopher Hitchens remarked: “Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.”

Satellite photograph of a mesa in the Cydonia region of Mars, often called the"Face on Mars"

Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.

The term was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia. He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".

Apophenia has also come to describe a human propensity to unreasonably seek definite patterns in random information, such as can occur in gambling or seeing meaningful images in random photographs.

Lack of intellectual humility

Intellectual humility is characterized by recognizing the limits of one's knowledge and acknowledging one's fallibility. It involves several components, including not thinking too highly of oneself, refraining from believing one's own views are superior to others', lacking intellectual vanity, being open to new ideas, and acknowledging mistakes and shortcomings. It is positively associated with openness to new ideas, empathy, prosocial values, tolerance for diverse perspectives, and scrutiny of misinformation.

Individuals with higher levels of intellectual humility experience benefits such as improved decision-making, positive social interactions, and the moderation of conflicts.

A person who lacks intellectual humility may think too highly of themselves, think their beliefs or attitudes are more likely to be correct than those of others, boast or brag about their intellectual accomplishments, become defensive when challenged, overreact to criticism, refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, lack curiosity, and hold rigidly to their beliefs, despite contrary evidence.

Assignment

Work to increase your intellectual humility.

1. Become more aware of your own doubts or uncertainties.
2. Become comfortable acknowledging your own uncertainty using phrases such as: “I’m not sure about that”, or “Let’s check up on that”, or “I’d like to find out more about this before making a firm decision.
3. Study the Humility section of the Wikiversity course Seeking True Beliefs.
4. Work to adopt a growth mindset, described in the next section.
5. Consider evaluating yourself using the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale.

Fixed mindset

People with a fixed mindset believe that "intelligence is static", and little can be done to improve ability. Feedback is seen as "evaluation of their underlying ability" and success is seen because of this ability, not any effort expended. Failure is intimidating, since it "suggests constraints or limits they would not be able to overcome". Those with a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges, give up easily, and focus on the outcome. They believe that their abilities are fixed, and effort has little value.

A fixed mindset is similar to the Soldier Mindset, described by Julia Galef.

Assignment:

1. Work to adopt a scout mindset.
2. Study the Internal vs. External Locus of Control section of the Wikiversity course on Sustaining Agency.
3. Read this essay on transitioning toward a growth mindset.
4. Take steps toward a attaining growth mindset.

Narcissism

Narcissism is excessive preoccupation with one's self, one's own worth, and one's own needs. It is typically associated with behaviors of self-elevation over others, entitlement, and delusional grandiosity.

Social Elements

People are inherently social. Each of us has a need to belong, and we seek to avoid the pain of social isolation and ostracism.

When misbelievers discover that others share a particular misbelief, they may find acceptance, validation, social status, and comfort within that group. Finally, I have found my people! These people believe me! I am attracted to these people! I belong with these people! I am comfortable being with my people! We have been right all along! We alone have discovered the truth and are no longer the naive suckers being duped. It all makes sense now.

Acceptance Displaces Ostracism

While ostracism, social rejection, and shunning are painful, acceptance is comfortable.

The social psychologist Kipling Williams defines ostracism as “any act or acts of ignoring and excluding an individual or group by an individual or a group, without necessarily involving acts of verbal or physical abuse.”

Williams proposes that the most prevalent form of ostracism is the silent treatment, where effectively refusing to communicate with a person effectively ignores and excludes them.

Williams and his colleagues have charted responses to ostracism in some five thousand cases and found two distinctive patterns of response. The first is increased group-conformity, in a quest for re-admittance; the second is to become more provocative and hostile to the group, seeking attention rather than acceptance.

Experiments with a simple cyberball computer game have found that even a simple and brief period of ostracism can produce significant increases in self-reported levels of anger and sadness.

Social rejection significantly impacts both emotional and physical health, leading to increased anxiety, depression, and negative emotions.  It also weakens the immune system, increases blood pressure, and heightens the risk of various illnesses, including HIV and tuberculosis.  Furthermore, rejection can cause long-term psychological and physical harm, especially in cases of family estrangement or chronic social isolation.

It is not surprising that someone who is being rejected by mainstream believers will seek acceptance among like-minded misbelievers.

Assignment

1. If someone you know is feeling isolated, help them to connect.
   • The Wikiversity course on Alleviating Loneliness may be helpful.
   • This collection of community-related resources may be helpful.
   • Become their friend.  
2. Avoid alienating misbelievers you encounter. Remain friendly and continue to establish rapport. Do not exclude or ostracize misbelievers, even subtly.
3. The methods of deep canvasing and street epistemology can be helpful in finding common ground.
4. Consider participating in a program offered by the Braver Angels organization.
5. Complete the Wikiversity course on Finding Common Ground.
   • Find common ground.

Social Proof

Often people will just go along to get along. This is an example of social proof.

Social proof, or informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where individuals copy the actions of others to determine appropriate behavior in each situation.

In ambiguous social situations, people rely on the assumption that others possess more knowledge about the current situation. This influence leads to the tendency of large groups to conform, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as herd behavior. While social proof reflects a rational desire to consider others’ information, formal analysis reveals that it can cause individuals to converge too quickly on a single choice, potentially resulting in decisions based on limited information. Information cascades are an example of this behavior.

The effects of social influence can be seen in the tendency of large groups to conform. When individuals are unsure of the correct behavior, they often seek guidance from others. Informational social influence occurs when people conform because they believe others’ interpretations of ambiguous situations are more accurate and will help them make appropriate choices. This contrasts with normative social influence, where individuals conform to be liked or accepted by others.

Social proof often leads to both public compliance (conforming to the behavior of others without necessarily believing it is correct) and private acceptance (conforming based on a genuine belief that others are correct).

Assignment

1. Complete the Wikiversity course Navigating Social Proof.
2. Decide for yourself when to go along to get along, or to think for yourself and see what happens.

Cognitive Dissonance

A tension, called cognitive dissonance, arises when actions are inconsistent with beliefs. A simple example is when a health-conscious person continues to smoke cigarettes, despite knowing the dangers.

This tension can be resolved in one of several ways:

1. Stop smoking,
2. Declare, to yourself and others, that smoking is safe, or
3. Endure the tension.

This tension can arise when a person holding some misbelief is confronted with evidence that challenges or falsifies their deeply held misbelief. Let’s take an example of a person who strongly believes they have experienced an alien abduction. As contrary evidence arises—say for example they were seen and photographed in public at some time during the alleged abduction—the tension increases. The tension can be resolved by dismissing the evidence and doubling down on the misbelief, or by abandoning the misbelief.

If the misbelief is weakly held, then it is easiest to abandon that misbelief, admit you were mistaken, and move past the incident. However, if the belief is rigidly held, if it became part of your identity, if you have achieved some level of acceptance or social status because of your resolve and commitment to this belief, it is likely you will increase your commitment to the misbelief and take increasingly extreme actions to defend the misbelief.

Also, a gap can arise between your held beliefs—what you authentically and privately believe—and your professed beliefs—what you tell others you believe. Maintaining this gap this introduces an additional tension.

Charlatans profess beliefs they do not hold. They are not experiencing cognitive dissonance; they are simply frauds.

The three conditions—what is true, what I believe, and what I profess to believe—can exist in various relationships. To enhance the alignment in your life, strive to ensure that all three conditions are consistent.

Assignment

1. Complete the Wikiversity course on Resolving Cognitive Dissonance.
2. Identify any cognitive dissonance you may be experiencing.
3. Work to align your behavior (including professed beliefs) with well-chosen beliefs.

Celebrity Charlatans

Many charlatans can increase their social status, at least temporality by publicly advocating for some misbelief. Read this list of celebrity charlatans who have who gained fame, notoriety, or celebrity status through deception, exaggerated claims, or fraudulent behavior, at least temporarily, by professing to hold misbeliefs. Also read this list of Prominent Conspiracy Theorists.

While the various misbelievers you are likely to encounter may not rise to the level of prominence of those in the lists above, many attain some level of social standing because of their (professed) misbeliefs. For the everyday misbeliever, comradery, followers, and likes are powerful rewards.

The pattern is clear:

1. Become intrigued with some misbelief.
2. Embrace the narrative. Add details. Embellish. Evangelize.
3. Gain some level of acceptance from fellow misbelievers.
4. Gain some level of social status for promoting this misbelief.
5. Maintaining this level of status depends on sustaining, defending, and often escalating the misbelief.
6. It becomes difficult to unwind this process, even if you begin to doubt the misbelief.

Assignment

1. Beware of misbeliefs and those who advance them.
2. Know how you know.
3. Be aware of the importance of skepticism, critical thinking, clear thinking, and the need to verify extraordinary claims.

Tribes and Loyalty

A shibboleth is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwords, ways of self-identification, signals of loyalty and affinity, ways of maintaining traditional segregation, or protection from real or perceived threats.

Sharing a particular misbelief can signal membership of an exclusive group of people who share a certain set of beliefs. Holding the misbelief is a shibboleth that quickly and reliably identifies members of the in-group and excludes members of the out group.  

To begin to understand group identity and loyalty, consider the following passage on calling a deer a horse:

Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer and presented it to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law and had them executed instantly. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao gained military power as a result of that.

Professed belief in a specific unlikely claim demonstrates loyalty to the group and perhaps its leader. The more preposterous the professed misbelief, the more costly the loyalty test and the stronger the evidence of loyalty.

Misbelievers of the same stripe form a closely knit tribe, bound by their willingness to demonstrate their loyalty by using the costly signal of professing a specific misbelief.

Media Landscape

Most alternative social media news consumers feel a sense of community on these sites, which prominently identify themselves as havens of free speech.

More information is available today than at any other time in history, yet our capacity to direct attention, avoid distractions, absorb information, evaluate credibility, and learn remains largely unchanged from thousands of years ago.

Learning to navigate today’s vast information landscapes can help you take charge of how you spend your time, direct your attention, and form beliefs.

In today’s fast-paced world, attention might be the most precious resource. Despite the abundance of information, it is attention that’s scarce, making it highly valuable. As you navigate through information landscapes, make sure to direct your attention wisely.

Assignment

1. Study the Wikiversity course Navigating Information Landscapes.
   • Navigate information landscapes wisely.
2. Study the Wikiversity course Navigating Social Proof.
   • Navigate social proof skillfully.
3. Study the Wikiversity course Evaluating Information.
   • Evaluate information skillfully.

Avoiding the Pitfalls

Misbeliefs, like a candle flame, can draw us in with their glow, promising hidden knowledge, alternative explanations, or thrilling narratives. But we must learn to look but not touch.

Enjoy the burning candle without touching it.

Assignments throughout this course have offered guidance in avoiding the many pitfalls of misbeliefs. Work on those assignments that seem most relevant and valuable to you.

In general misbeliefs can be avoided by:

1. Deciding to look but not touch. Explore misbeliefs without committing to them.
2. Strengthening your motivations toward true beliefs.
3. Pursuing the Inner development goals.
4. Inviting and exploring differing viewpoints:
   • Engage in Socratic Dialogue with someone who holds some belief different from yours.
   • Participate in Braver Angels programs.
5. Seeking true beliefs, and
6. Working to align your worldview with realty.

Applying the Intellectual Virtues

An important objective of this course is to help students to use the intellectual virtues to overcome intellectual vices. As a result students can transition from rigidly held beliefs to more carefully considered firmly held beliefs.

Assignment

1. Read this list of controversial statements. (Caution, these statements are deliberately chosen to be provocative.)
2. Identify any statements that are particularly sensitive or emotionally charged for you. These might be statements you’ve held ridigly for a long time and have strong emotional attachments to. You might even enjoy discussing them or using them to connect with people in your in-group. These statements could also be significant aspects of your political, cultural, or religious identity.
3. Reflect on how you came to hold that belief and what you have at stake. Why is this important to you? Is this belief motivated by fear or hate?
4. Carefully and skillfully examine such statements. Identify hidden assumptions and instances where facts are intertwined with opinions or controversies. Determine any motivating truths behind the claim, along with inaccurate, misleading, and untrue elements. Analyze any simplistic reductions of complex issues, logical fallacies, or inaccuracies.
5. Apply the intellectual virtues as skillfully as you can to overcome any lingering intellectual vices.
6. If you can find someone with differing views on a topic, engage them in a skillful dialogue if they are willing and able to do so. Consider using Socratic methods or even street epistemology. Throughout this process, strengthen your relationship with your dialogue partner and work to find common ground.
7. Work to transition from your rigidly held beliefs to a more carefully considered firmly held belief on the topic.

Conversion

Abandoning a deeply held belief is difficult, however it can be done.

Assignment

1. Form a list of beliefs you hold firmly that you suspect may be misbeliefs. You may be able to identify these candidate misbeliefs because other thoughtful people differ in this belief.
2. Examine why you hold that belief. How do you benefit from holding that belief? How might you benefit from abandoning that belief?
3. Use techniques described throughout this course to challenge and perhaps alter that belief.
4. Read this essay on Lessons from Conversion Stories.
5. Seek inspiration from one or more of these stories.
6. Decide to convert to a true belief.
7. Persist in adopting that new true belief.

Summary and Conclusions

Misbeliefs are a widespread and persistent challenge, affecting individuals and societies alike.^[35] While we often assume we are skilled at distinguishing fact from fiction, research and experience show that we frequently overestimate our ability to judge truth accurately. The human mind is vulnerable to errors in reasoning, social influences, and emotional biases, all of which contribute to the formation and spread of false beliefs. Because of this, misbeliefs are not just occasional errors but deeply ingrained tendencies that shape how we perceive and interpret the world.

A variety of factors drive people toward misbeliefs rather than true beliefs. Psychological needs, cognitive shortcuts, and social pressures all contribute to the appeal of certain misbeliefs. In times of stress or uncertainty, people may cling to comforting but false explanations rather than confront complex or unsettling truths. Additionally, personality traits, such as openness to new experiences or susceptibility to authority, influence how likely someone is to embrace and spread misbeliefs. The modern media landscape further accelerates the spread of misinformation, making it easier for unverified or deceptive claims to reach vast audiences quickly.

Recognizing the conditions that allow misbeliefs to thrive is a crucial step toward reducing their influence. By understanding the cognitive biases that lead to errors in judgment, the emotional and social rewards that reinforce misbeliefs, and the systemic issues that facilitate their spread, we can take active steps to resist misinformation. Education, critical thinking, and media literacy play essential roles in helping individuals and communities evaluate claims more rigorously and choose true beliefs over false ones.

Ultimately, addressing misbeliefs is not just an intellectual challenge but a societal responsibility. Encouraging open-minded skepticism, promoting respectful dialogue, and fostering environments where truth-seeking is valued over ideological certainty can help mitigate the harms caused by misbeliefs. While false beliefs may always be part of human nature, understanding their origins and persistence empowers us to navigate the modern information landscape more wisely, making choices that align with truth rather than illusion.

Assignment

1. Seek true beliefs.
2. Seek real good.
3. Live wisely!

Recommended Reading

Students who are interested in learning more about misbeliefs may wish to read these books:

• Ariely, Dan (September 17, 2024). Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things. Harper Perennial. pp. 320. ISBN 978-0063280434. 
• Bruni, Frank (April 30, 2024). The Age of Grievance. Avid Reader Press. pp. 288. ISBN 978-1668016435. 
• Tavris, Carol (August 4, 2020). Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. Mariner. pp. 464. ISBN 978-0358329619. 
• Kashdan, Todd (April 21, 2009). Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. William Morrow. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0061661181. 
• Burton, Robert. On Being Certain Paperback. Griffin. pp. 272. ISBN 978-0312541521. 
• Gray, Dave (September 14, 2016). Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think. Two Waves Books. pp. 184. ISBN 978-1933820460. 
• Schulz, Kathryn (June 8, 2010). Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. Ecco. pp. 416. ISBN 0061176044. 
• Behind the Curve, documentary film directed by Daniel J. Clark
• Galef, Julia (April 13, 2021). The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't. Piatkus. ISBN 978-0349427645. 
• Holmes, Jamie (October 11, 2016). Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing Paperback. Crown. pp. 336. ISBN 978-0385348393. 
• Mackay, Charles (November 1, 2016). Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. pp. 386. ISBN 978-1539849582. 
• Hecht, Jennifer Michael (September 7, 2004). Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson. HarperOne. pp. 576. ISBN 978-0060097950. 
• Wilczek, Frank (January 12, 2021). Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality. Penguin Press. pp. 272. ISBN 978-0735223790. 
• Wilson, Edward Osborne (March 30, 1999). Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Vintage. pp. 384. ISBN 978-0679768678. 
• Pinker, Steven (September 28, 2021). Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. Viking. pp. 432. ISBN 978-0525561996. 
• Frankfurt, Harry G. (January 30, 2005). On Bullshit. Princeton University Press. pp. 67. ISBN 978-0691122946. 
• Frankfurt, Harry G. (October 31, 2006). On Truth. Knopf. pp. 112. ISBN 978-0307264220. 
• Wolpert, Lewis (July 17, 2008). Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 256. ISBN 978-0393332032. 
• Sunstein, Cass R. (December 23, 2014). Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter. Harvard Business Review Press. pp. 272. ISBN 978-1422122990. 
• Snyder, Timothy (September 17, 2024). On freedom (First edition ed.). New York: Crown. ISBN 978-0-593-72872-7. 
• Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy, by Timothy J. Heaphy
• Kahneman, Daniel (April 2, 2013). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 499. ISBN 978-0374533557. 
• Haidt, Jonathan (February 12, 2013). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Vintage. pp. 528. ISBN 978-0307455772. 
• Andersen, Kurt (September 5, 2017). Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. Random House. pp. 480. ISBN 978-1400067213. 
• McIntyre, Lee (February 16, 2018). Post-Truth. The MIT Press. pp. 240. ISBN 978-0262535045. 
• Tsipursky, Gleb; Ward, Tim (May 29, 2020). Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back Into Politics. Changemakers Books. p. 271. ISBN 978-1789043990. 
• Wilczek, Frank (January 12, 2021). Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality. Penguin Press. pp. 272. ISBN 978-0735223790. 
• Rosling, Hans (April 3, 2018). Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. Flatiron Books. pp. 341. ISBN 978-1-250-10781-7. 
• Rosling, Hans (April 3, 2018). Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. Flatiron Books. pp. 341. ISBN 978-1-250-10781-7. 
• Aral, Sinan (September 14, 2021). The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--and How We Must Adapt. Crown. pp. 416. ISBN 978-0593240403. 
• Peterson, Christopher; Maier, Steven F.; Seligman, Martin E. P. (1995). Learned helplessness: a theory for the age of personal control (1st issued as an Oxford Univ. Press Paperback ed.). New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504467-6. 
• Campbell, Joseph (June 1, 1991). The Power of Myth. Anchor. pp. 293. ISBN 978-0385418867. 
• Shermer, Michael (August 7, 2012). The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 385. ISBN 978-1250008800. 
• Cialdini, Robert B. (20). Influence: the psychology of persuasion (Rev. ed., [Nachdr.] ed.). New York, NY: Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-124189-5. 
• Singer, Margaret Thaler (April 11, 2003). Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace. Jossey-Bass. pp. 400. ISBN 978-0787967413. 
• Tobias, Madeleine (January 1, 1994). Captive Hearts, Captive Minds : Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships. Hunter House. pp. 304. ISBN 978-0897931441. 
• Brown, Brené (March 1, 2022). The Gifts of Imperfection. Hazelden Publishing. pp. 208. ISBN 978-1616499600. 
• Andrews, Seth (December 4, 2012). Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason. Outskirts Press. pp. 204. ISBN 978-1478716563. 
• Johnson, Spencer (Paperback – January 1, 1999). Who Moved My Cheese?. Vermilion. ISBN 978-0091876043. 
• Berger, Jonah (February 1, 2022). The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind. Simon & Schuster. pp. 288. ISBN 978-1982108649. 
• Heflinger, Earl (March 14, 2018). Off the Hook: Escaping Toxic Ideology. BalboaPress. pp. 328. ISBN 978-1504399913. 
• Muster, Nori (February 20, 2017). Cult Survivors Handbook: Seven Paths to an Authentic Life. Independently published. pp. 83. ISBN 978-1520661025. 

I have not yet read the following books, but they seem interesting and relevant. They are listed here to invite further research.

• The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth by Jonathan Rauch
• Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality by Renee DiResta
• How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion, by David McRaney
• Influence: Science and Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini
• Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas, by Cass R. Sunstein
• Conspiracy Theories (THINK) by Quassim Cassam
• Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age (Information Policy), by Melissa Zimdars (Editor), Kembrew Mcleod (Editor)
• The doctor who fooled the world, by Brian Deer
• Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women by Batya Ungar-Sargon
• Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It, by Richard V. Reeves.
• Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics

References

The resources sited here can be helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of misbelief.

• Understanding Conspiracy Theories, Karen M. Douglas, University of Kent

• Symposium on Conspiracy Theories, Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures, Cass R. Sunstein, Law, Harvard University and Adrian Vermeule Law, Harvard University

• The evolution of misbelief, by McKay, R T ; Dennett, D C

• The disaster of misinformation: a review of research in social media, by Sadiq Muhammed T, and Saji K. Mathew

• Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media: Systematic Review, by Victor Suarez-Lledo, and Javier Alvarez-Galvez

• Global Development Incubator, Tango

• Conspiracy Theories

• Yale program on climate change communications.

• Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard

• Cultures of rejection in the Covid-19 crisis