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Book Review: Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe by Hugo Mercier

The perceived dangers to democracy of disinformation feature strongly in public discourse, journalism, and academia. Interestingly enough, this discussion often jumps from the identification of false information in communication spaces to the expectation that masses of people are easily purposefully mislead by nefarious actors. The excitement of identifying the spread of purposefully or accidentally misleading information has led to some neglect with regard to establishing the effects of said information. This leaves a large gap in our knowledge if we want to establish the actual role of disinformation in contemporary politics. For this discussion, Hugo Mercier’s book Not Born Yesterday provides a very welcome addition. Mercier convincingly argues that people are far less “gullible” than public discourse currently supposes. Instead of falling for misleading persuasion attempts or following ill-founded conspiracy theories over the cliff, his account shows people possessing fine-tuned defense mechanisms that keep them from adopting new, counter-attitudinal, or costly believes. Instances that appear like people falling for disinformation or conspiracy theories do not necessarily speak of them being persuaded but instead of them following previously held believes, performing group identities by sending out costly signals (as for example apparent believe in widely rejected ideas), or the public fronting of original (since unfounded) positions and claims without any real or costly commitment. Mercier advances this argument in sixteen concise chapters, in which he provides focused accounts of different aspects of persuasion and people’s resistance to it. With his book, Mercier provides a highly accessible and balanced account of theories and evidence from psychology, media effects, and campaigning research and connects this wide-ranging literature with the ongoing debate about the presence and political effects of disinformation. In academia, this debate has developed into an increasingly interdisciplinary research effort with researchers entering from many different backgrounds. Here, perspectives from psychology, media effects research, and political science are somewhat underrepresented. For researchers without these backgrounds, Mercier’s book and its well-selected list of sources provide a highly stimulating crash-course in the psychology of persuasion and people’s highly functional resistance mechanisms, be they psychological or social. Beyond academia, Mercier 983777 HIJXXX10.1177/1940161220983777The International Journal of Press/PoliticsInvited Book Review book-review2020