What causes people to accept irrational misinformation and conspiracy theories? The answer is Misbelief.

Misinformation affects us every day—from social media to political debates, from casual conversations to our closest relationships. In Misbelief, preeminent social scientist Dan Ariely argues that to understand the irrational appeal of false information, we must first understand “misbelief”—the psychological and social journey that leads people to mistrust accepted truths, entertain alternative facts, and even embrace full-blown conspiracy theories. Misinformation appeals to something innate in all of us and it is only by understanding this psychology that we can start to blunt its effects.

Grounded in years of study as well as Ariely’s own experience as a target of disinformation, Misbelief is an eye-opening and comprehensive analysis of the psychological drivers that cause otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs. Utilizing the latest research, Ariely reveals the key elements—emotional, cognitive, personality, and social—that drive people down the funnel of false information and mistrust, showing how under the right circumstances, anyone can become a misbeliever. Yet Ariely also offers hope. Even as advanced artificial intelligence has become capable of generating misinformation at an unprecedented scale, he shows how awareness of the forces fueling misbelief can arm us against their allure. Misbelief is a provocative and fresh paradigm for understanding and combating disinformation, an empowering strategy rooted not in conflict, but in empathy.