Falsehoods Fly: Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It

by Paul Thagard

Misinformation is one of the twenty-first century's greatest challenges, a peril to democracy, peace, science, and public health. Yet we lack a clear understanding of what makes misinformation so potent and why it can spread so rapidly. In Falsehoods Fly, a leading cognitive scientist and philosopher offers a new framework for recognizing and countering misleading claims by exploring the ways that information works-and breaks down.

Paul Thagard examines the dangers of misinformation on COVID-19, climate change, conspiracy theories, inequality, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He argues that effective responses to these problems require understanding how information is generated and spread. Bringing together empirical findings about the psychological and social mechanisms that drive cognitive errors with philosophical accounts of critical thinking, Thagard develops an innovative theory of how we gain information. Grasping how the generation and transmission of knowledge can fail helps us find ways to repair it and provides tools for converting misinformation into facts. Offering a deep and rich account of the nature and workings of information, Falsehoods Fly provides practical, concrete strategies to stop the creation and spread of misinformation.

Genres: Biography Memoir

376 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Xavier Terminello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really on skimmed Ch. 1 and 8. Is written in a very rigid academic textual style aka great lit review but really not my preference for non-fiction book. AIMS framework is interesting but I feel like I could have had most of this conveyed in a few pages rather than an entire book. The two things I got from this book:

1. Check the course — it really is that important.
2. The Orwellian spin off phrase: Lies are Truth, Sickness is Health, and Equality is Bias

#2 being ironic enough because it’s one of the few things I read that wasn’t written in this very rigid style. I feel reasonably confident this would be a great book for someone who wants to do research with Thagard or wants a research focused understanding of misinformation but wouldn’t recommend to anyone else.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to the important subject of misinformation. Here you will find a theoretical background as well as practical advice and tools, and many examples of this phenomenon, like medical misinformation related to COVID-19 or conspiracy theories. Worth reading, even if you are familiar with the concept.

Thanks to the publisher, Columbia University Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[G Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author clearly knows what he is talking about and proffers quite a few pretty good ideas and explanations throughout. I don't know enough to fault him on much of the bare facts of the book as they are presented - his arguments and suggestions sounded solid enough to me. So why three stars?

Well, it was just all kinda boring. I'm a pretty big reader of nonfiction and even enjoy reading about things that don't sound very interesting or useful. I am convinced that literally any topic can be made interesting, but this sort of wasn't. Occasionally I would be engaged with the book, but for long stretches -especially at the beginning and near the end- I found myself drifting in and out of attention. And maybe I'm just a brainwashed American, but even though I largely agree that misinformation needs to be combated in as many ways possible, there were occasions in which some of Thagard's rhetoric ventured a bit too closely into thought police territory. Of course I want to be sure that we all exist in the same information reality, and I do believe that legislation and regulation should play a part in cutting out a certain portion of disinformation in particular to protect the populace from actual incorrect information, but some people will always be shitty and it's not really our job to make them otherwise.

Ultimately this thing is just a bit too long. I'm sure there are reasons beyond "this was important to the author" to include that entire last chapter, but I was pretty much checked out by then. I won't tell you to actively avoid this one because a lot of the information is still worthwhile and insightful, but for all that, I was just plain having a hard time focusing.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot has been written about the spread of fake news and misinformation, some from a political science point of view, others from a psychological one. Thagard includes a little bit of both throughout the book. Although his writing is concise and easy to be absorbed into, I didn't feel like anything too new was discussed here. The strength of the book was in its organization: it was fascinating to read about misinformation centered around a particular event or idea in each chapter. The strongest chapter was that on climate change, as it merged the cognitive with the scientific research. I'm certain some will still see Thagard as a bumbling liberal towing the leftist line with some of his writing, but there isn't much to say against detractors like these.
The book would be great for someone to begin a syntopical project on "fake news" and misbelief. It's well-written and well-organized enough to set a high bar for reading other works on the subject.

[Sandy Schmidt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misinformation is false or misleading information gleaned from facts/data that may be relevant at the time. While additional research or data may change the outcome, the spread of the misinformation generally continues. Disinformation is deliberately putting out false or misleading information by intentionally skewing the facts/data or outright making stuff up. Thagard discusses how wishful hearing and wishful seeing as well as internal motivations influence our perception and memory of spoken and seen events so that even when confronted with conflict, we may continue to espouse the mis- or disinformation. There are cute cartoons and charts and a lot of references. I particularly liked his AIMS theory: acquisition, inference, memory, spread.

[BJ Richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This Book was a DNF about two chapters in. It became clear that the book was much more a liberal soapbox where the author was only going to address lies from those right wing conspiracy theorists and that the author was also a strong proponent of government censorship and gatekeepers on public forums like Youtube, FaceBook, Twitter (X), etc.

This looks to be a great read for anyone who thinks books like 1984 and Brave New World were great books about the ideal form of government we should all be pushing for.

[Kelly Hodgkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I anticipated new information to be shared and practical ways to stop misinformation. This is not quite what Falsehoods Fly is. It shares fairly well-established insights again in an acronym model the author created and the fits major world topics into the model in a demonstration of how it played out. I was not looking to rehash the past but rather consider ways to prevent it. Not one for me.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Falsehoods Fly covers the dangers of misinformation and ways to combat it. As someone who has read a decent amount of books and articles about misinformation, I didn't find much newer information. I'd definitely recommend this for people who are new to the topic.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It provides a deep dive into psychology and a very good look at the philosophy of science. I found the tone somewhat conversational, with educational nuances, but definitely not pedantic. I also felt that the book was a thoughtful and thorough look at the subject. Thagard uses a lot of analogies to explain his points and adds in some subtle humour. He also referred to science fiction/fantasy which is a win for me. I also very much enjoyed the cartoons in the book, another win. Thank you to Edelweiss and Columbia University Press for the advance reader copy.

[archana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheers to Netgalley for sending this copy across. As a psychologist, this book has a fantastic breakdown of how cognitive influences, social influences and everything in between affect us in the era of misinformation. If you are someone who has no psychology background, I'm sure this book is even more useful for you because of the lack of jargon. An easy read and super informative non-fiction book, for you to read this year!

[BJ Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF'd this book at less than 10%. I was hoping for a good book on epistemology applied to our modern age. Instead, this book appears to be a propaganda piece for the Left against the Right with a strong endorsement of things like Government oversight, censorship, and gatekeepers. No thanks, I will not be wasting my time on this garbage.