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Foolproof
- Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity
- Narrated by: Sander van der Linden
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
Winner of British Psychological Society Best Book Prize (Popular Science) 2023
Nature’s Top 10 Books of 2023
A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023
A Waterstones Book of the Year for Politics 2023
Fake news. Alternative facts. Conspiracy theories. Misinformation is one of the defining problems of our age, and despite what we may think, we are all susceptible. So how and why does misinformation spread? And, more importantly, what can we do about it? Sander van der Linden, a Cambridge University professor and leading expert, takes us through the psychology of conspiratorial thinking and equips us with the tools needed to help stop the spread of misinformation once and for all.
'Authoritative' Financial Times
'Encouraging' The Times
‘A fascinating case for counteracting the misinformation virus through psychological inoculation’ Observer
‘A must-read for those of us interested in resisting the spread of disinformation’ Psychology Today
'If you want to know why people believe fake news and how to defend yourself against it, then this is the book to read' The Skeptic
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Critic reviews
‘Foolproof proves an overview that is authoritative, comprehensive and chatty. You won’t find a better survey of what is now a vast interdisciplinary landscape and that alone is a great service’ Tim Harford
‘An insightful and forensic examination of why our brains entertain disinformation – and the remedies that can protect us all from its real-world harm. For everyone who messages me asking how they can speak to someone who has fallen victim to online conspiracies – this is the book for you!’ Marianna Spring
‘Powerfully analyses why everyone is susceptible, how falsehoods spread, and how to “prebunk” misinformation and “inoculate” ourselves and others against it’ Nature
‘A fascinating, in-depth investigation into the complex landscape of misinformation from someone who has spent his career trying to combat fake news. You will never look at your social media feeds in the same way again’ Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs
‘This brilliant book vividly illuminates the challenges of countering misinformation, showing how human psychology can make us vulnerable to manipulation and conspiracy theories. Van der Linden’s analysis would be utterly depressing, were he not to provide a set of powerful evidence-based 'antigens' designed to protect us from false claims. They have never been more needed’ Professor David Spiegelhalter
… Readers will find an accessible crash course on how human psychology functions in processing information and assessing its truthfulness. Van der Linden is highly skilled at condensing the most relevant knowledge into a highly coherent text’ The Skeptic
‘Sander van der Linden is one of the world’s leading experts on combating misinformation, and Foolproof is the ultimate handbook for navigating – and fighting back against – the tsunami that threatens to drown us in bullshit’ Jay Van Bavel, author of The Power of Us
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The about face shift in view I've been looking for
- By McKane on 03-18-15
By: Evgeny Morozov
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True or False
- A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News
- By: Cindy L. Otis
- Narrated by: Erin Dion
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis takes listeners through the history and impact of misinformation over the centuries, sharing stories from the past and insights that listeners today can gain from them. Then, she shares lessons learned in over a decade working for the CIA, including actionable tips on how to spot fake news, how to make sense of the information we receive each day, and, most importantly, how to understand and see past our own information biases so that we can think critically about important issues and put events happening around us into context.
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Good Introduction
- By Chima Onukwuru on 01-17-21
By: Cindy L. Otis
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Presidential Takedown
- How Anthony Fauci, the CDC, NIH, and the WHO Conspired to Overthrow President Trump
- By: Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, Kent Heckenlively
- Narrated by: Bob Johnson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In January 2020, Donald Trump was on the fast track to an easy re-election. While his first two years had been stymied by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Democrats, his third year had been one of remarkable success. The United States had low unemployment and was making strides across the globe. The president's rallies were well-attended, and he was being projected to win four hundred electoral votes and about forty-five states. Then came COVID-19.
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Must listen!!
- By Christina Borkowski on 01-10-23
By: Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, and others
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Native American DNA
- Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science
- By: Kim TallBear
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how DNA testing is a powerful - and problematic - scientific process that is useful in determining close biological relatives. But tribal membership is a legal category that has developed in dependence on certain social understandings and historical contexts, a set of concepts that entangles genetic information in a web of family relations, reservation histories, tribal rules, and government regulations.
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Intelligent, thought provoking
- By k g on 05-24-24
By: Kim TallBear
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Twitter and Tear Gas
- The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
- By: Zeynep Tufekci
- Narrated by: Carly Robins
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today's social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests - how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change.
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Insightful but frustrating
- By James on 03-11-18
By: Zeynep Tufekci
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Why Trust Science?
- The University Center for Human Values, Book 1
- By: Naomi Oreskes
- Narrated by: John Chancer, Kelly Burke, Kerry Shale, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when our own politicians don't? In this landmark book, Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength - and the greatest reason we can trust it.
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Perfect Production of an Excellent Work
- By Andrew Mazibrada on 01-15-20
By: Naomi Oreskes
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In Defense of Troublemakers
- The Power of Dissent in Life and Business
- By: Charlan Nemeth
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We've decided by consensus that consensus is good. In In Defense of Troublemakers, psychologist Charlan Nemeth argues that this principle is completely wrong: left unchallenged, the majority opinion is often biased, unoriginal, or false. It leads planes and markets to crash, causes juries to convict innocent people, and can quite literally make people think blue is green. In the name of comity, we embrace stupidity. We can make better decisions by embracing dissent. Dissent forces us to question the status quo, consider more information, and engage in creative decision-making.
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A Good Review of Group Thinking
- By J. Justice on 03-20-24
By: Charlan Nemeth
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The Formula
- How Algorithms Solve all our Problems…and Create More
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.
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Not about algorithms. Not an original book.
- By Landon Rordam on 12-02-14
By: Luke Dormehl
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The Science of Fear
- Why We Fear the Things We Should Not - and Put Ourselves in Great Danger
- By: Daniel Gardner
- Narrated by: Scott Peterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From terror attacks to the War on Terror, bursting real-estate bubbles to crystal meth epidemics, sexual predators to poisonous toys from China, our list of fears seems to be exploding. And yet, we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Irrational fear is running amok, and often with tragic results. In the months after 9/11, when people decided to drive instead of fly - believing they were avoiding risk - road deaths rose by 1,595. Those lives were lost to fear.
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A rational assessment of the world we live in
- By K Head on 08-29-09
By: Daniel Gardner
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Slanted
- How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism
- By: Sharyl Attkisson
- Narrated by: Sharyl Attkisson
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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We have reached a state of utter absurdity, where journalism schools teach students that their own personal truth or chosen narratives matter more than reality. In Slanted, Attkisson digs into the language of propagandists, the persistence of false media narratives, the driving forces behind today's dangerous blend of facts and opinion, the abandonment of journalism ethics, and the new, Orwellian definition of what it means to report the news.
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Connecting the dots
- By Amy Cox on 11-29-20
By: Sharyl Attkisson
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The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars
- By: Michael Mann
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In its 2001 report on global climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations prominently featured the "Hockey Stick", a chart showing global temperature data over the past 1,000 years. The Hockey Stick demonstrated that temperature had risen with the increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels. The inescapable conclusion was that worldwide human activity since the industrial age had raised CO2 levels, trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and warming the planet.
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Speaking truth to power
- By Anonymous User on 06-06-24
By: Michael Mann
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Superminds
- The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together
- By: Thomas W. Malone
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Many people today are so dazzled by the long-term potential for artificial intelligence that they overlook the much clearer and more immediate potential for a new form of "collective intelligence": the intelligence of groups of people and computers working together. In Superminds, Thomas Malone explains what we need to do to take advantage of this potential. Groundbreaking and utterly fascinating, Superminds will change the way you work - both with others and with computers - for the better.
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"Why did a Kenyan immigrant win the 2008 election"
- By RealTruth on 07-11-18
By: Thomas W. Malone
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The Death of Truth
- Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
- By: Michiko Kakutani
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.
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Prescient Account of the Mechanics of Tyranny
- By Brian Price on 07-27-18
By: Michiko Kakutani
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Virus of the Mind
- The New Science of the Meme
- By: Richard Brodie
- Narrated by: Richard Brodie
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
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Virus of the Mind is the first popular work devoted to the science of memetics, a controversial new field that transcends psychology, biology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Memetics is the science of memes, the invisible but very real DNA of human society. Here, the author carefully builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett, and others who have become fascinated with memes and their potential impact on our lives.
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The "Memes Explain Everything" Meme.
- By Nelson Alexander on 02-20-10
By: Richard Brodie
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The Manipulators
- Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Big Tech's War on Conservatives
- By: Peter Hasson
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For better or for worse, Google and social media - “Big Tech”, collectively - have become the new public square. Unfortunately, this public square has a watchful referee standing behind them, ready and waiting to blow the whistle if they veer too far from the preferred narrative. Americans have given these companies enormous power to select the information they read, share and discuss with their neighbors and friends.
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Good Content....Run 1.2x Speed or You'll Go Crazy
- By Peter on 05-17-20
By: Peter Hasson