Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era

Daniel J. Levitin

Penguin Canada, Mar 7, 2017 - Social Science - 320 pages

Winner of the National Business Book Award 

Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies

We’re surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get our minds back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. 

Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories.

This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like "fringe theories," "extreme views," "alt truth," and even "fake news" can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.

About the author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and bestselling author. He is Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI in San Francisco, a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and Professor Emeritus at McGill University. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, and The Organized Mind. He divides his time between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era
• Author: Daniel J. Levitin
• Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2017
• ISBN: 0735234515, 9780735234512
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Statistics; Psychology / Applied Psychology; Social Science / Media Studies