In the information age, with shrinking attention spans, it is crucial not to rely solely on our instincts and cognitive biases to discern truth. Memorable information is not always true, leading to the illusory truth effect. While science communicators use storytelling to engage, purveyors of misinformation also exploit these techniques. Technological advancements and biases pose a double-edged sword, offering both benefits and drawbacks in navigating information and truth in the digital era.
Raise your hand if you've ever belittled a stranger online, made a decision based on astrology, or, heaven forbid, fallen for a conspiracy theory. No? Well, then, consider yourself lucky. And if your hand is raised, don't feel bad, because it turns out in our Information Age the cognitive biases that kept us alive a few millennia ago now make us susceptible to bouts of extreme irrationality. How this happened, and what we can do about it, is the subject of a brand new book by linguist Amanda Montell called "The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality."