Evan Davis > Quotes

“Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.”
― Evan Davis

“Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in. ”
― Evan Davis

“The cognitive point here is that we generally make sense of confusing things by judging them against various preconceptions. When confronted with a new proposition we don’t start thinking about it with a blank sheet in front of us; instead, we place the proposition somewhere in relation to our pre-existing structure of beliefs and attitudes, this makes liked much easier, because we can reduce even a complicated judgement to a simple binary one – does it conform to my existing views or not?”
― Evan Davis

“We all also suffer from confirmation bias, the tendency to spot evidence in support of a proposition that we already think is true. So it is not always the case that people start with a belief and then set out to communicate it; much of the bullshit to which we are exposed comes from folks who have a compelling reason to communicate something and then come to believe it. Or to think they believe it.”
― Evan Davis

“Someday we'll look back on this moment, and plow into a parked car”
― Evan Davis

“When it comes to communication, things never change and yet things are always changing.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“To behave unconventionally is liable to be misinterpreted.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“Lacing prose with supposed facts that actually lack meaning is but one case of a more general habit of writing text superfluous to the goal of relaying information.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“The information we are fed is largely based on the information we choose to consume.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“Most often, framing works because our preconceptions play a large part in helping us jump to conclusions about things. It is simply a way of connecting a message to a favourable existing belief. Our minds are full of prejudices – values, attitudes, views – through which incoming information is processed. In fact, we all know that our preconceptions are so important that once we have one lodged in our head it is hard to displace. They are the way we makes sense of the world. But […] that sense can become nonsense in the hands of those able to manipulate our thinking.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“The real point is always buried in the subtitles.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“It's not a bad idea to occasionally spend a little time thinking about things you take for granted. Plain everyday things.”
― Evan Davis

“It is often by our bullshit that we reveal our allegiance. Our words convey a sense of belonging to a particular club. And because it is a subtle form of communication, it is harder to fake that an explicit statement of loyalty.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“...illustrates the complex relationship between language and message. Words are intricate enough, but the way they are said adds a while extra dimension to the problem of interpretation.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“Our language is shaped by the context in which we are communicating: we select the words that fit our function.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“It’s not about the fact of the matter as such, it is about the sentiment beneath. You can apply all the usual fact-checking tools to the literal claim, but the real point is always buried in the subtitles, and no amount of correction will belie that.”
― Evan Davis

“Remember the [burnt] gooseberry tart: the polite comment tells the host nothing about the pudding, but a lot about the guest.”
― Evan Davis, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It