Ep133 "Why do people hold misbeliefs?" with Dan Ariely

In this episode of Inner Cosmos, David Eagleman interviews behavioral economist Dan Ariely about his book "Misbelief," exploring why people adopt beliefs that seem detached from reality. Ariely shares his personal experience of being targeted by COVID-era conspiracy theories and how it led him to study the psychology of misbelief. The discussion covers the roles of stress, cognition, personality, and social factors in adopting and reinforcing misbeliefs. Ariely introduces concepts like the "illusion of explanatory depth" and "shibboleths" to explain how people become entrenched in these beliefs, and he and Eagleman discuss potential interventions, emphasizing the importance of intellectual humility and fostering trust to combat misinformation and polarization.