by Hugo Mercier
55. Gentzkow & Shapiro, 2011.
56. Fletcher & Nielsen, 2017.
57. Guess, 2016; see also Flaxman, Goel, & Rao, 2016; R. E. Robertson et al., 2018.
58. Dubois & Blank, “The myth of the echo chamber”; see also Puschmann,
2018.
59. Allcott, Braghieri, Eichmeyer, & Gentzkow, 2019.
60. Beam, Hutchens, & Hmielowski, 2018; see also Jo, 2017.
61. Boxel , Gentzkow, & Shapiro, 2017; see also Andrew Guess, Benjamin Lyons,
Brendan Nyhan, & Jason Reifler, “Why selective exposure to like- minded congenial
po liti cal news is less prevalent than you think,” Medium, February 13, 2018, https://
medium .com / trust - media - and - democracy / avoiding - the - echo - chamber - about - echo
- chambers - 6e1f1a1a0f39 (accessed April 26, 2018).
62. See, e.g., Crowell & Kuhn, 2014.
63. Zipperstein, 2018, p. 29.
n o t e s t o c h a p t e r 14 301
64. Darnton, “The True History of Fake News.”
65. Kaplan, 1982.
CHAPTER 14
1. See, e.g., Shtulman, 2017.
2. Denis Dutton, “The Bad Writing Contest,” denisdutton .com, http:// www
. denisdutton .com / bad _ writing .htm (accessed June 8, 2018).
3. This is an honest attempt at translating the fol owing: “Pour couper court, je dirai
que la nature se spécifie de n’être pas une, d’où le procédé logique pour l’aborder. Par
le procédé d’appeler nature ce que vous excluez du fait même de porter intérêt à
quelque chose, ce quelque chose se distinguant d’être nommé, la nature ne se risque
à rien qu’à s’affirmer d’être un pot- pourri de hors- nature” (Lacan, 2005, p. 12).
4. “When Americans say they believe in God, what do they mean?,” Pew Research
Center, April 25, 2018, http:// www .pewforum .org / 2018 / 04 / 25 / when - americans - say
- they - believe - in - god - what - do - they - mean / .
5. E.g., “Mixed messages about public trust in science,” Pew Research Center, De-
cember 8, 2017, http:// www .pewinternet .org / 2017 / 12 / 08 / mixed - messages - about
- public - trust - in - science / .
6. Cited in McIntyre, 2018, p. 142.
7. Sperber, 1997.
8. Boyer, 2001; Sperber, 1975.
9. Boyer, 2001.
10. Boyer, 2001.
11. Greene, 1990.
12. Barrett, 1999.
13. Barrett & Keil, 1996.
14. Barrett, 1999, p. 327.
15. Barrett & Keil, 1996.
16. See also Barlev, Mermelstein, & German, 2017, 2018.
17. McCloskey, Washburn, & Felch, 1983.
18. See Dennett, 1995.
19. My translation from Lévi- Strauss, 1986, cited in “Jacques Lacan,” Wikipedia,
https:// fr .wikipedia .org / wiki / Jacques _ Lacan (accessed May 15. 2018).
20. “Jacques Lacan,” Wikipedia.
21. On plausibility, see Col ins et al., 2018.
22. Boyer & Parren, 2015.
23. Thomas Mackie, “Lethal pig virus similar to SARS could strike humans,” In-
foWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / lethal - pig - virus - similar - to - sars
- could - strike - humans / ; “Experts: MH370 pi lot was on murder suicide mission,”
302 no t es t o ch ap t er 14
InfoWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / experts - mh370 - pilot - was - on
- murder - suicide - mission / .
24. Paul Joseph Watson, “Finland: 93% of mi grant sex crimes committed by mi grants
from Islamic countries,” InfoWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / finland - 93
- of - migrant - sex - crimes - committed - by - migrants - from - islamic - countries / ; “Watch live: Turkey announces launch of worldwide Jihad, withdraws ambassadors from US/Israel,”
InfoWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / watch - live - soros - shuts - down
- offices - in - repressive - hungary / ; “Video exposes the suicide of Eu rope,” InfoWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / video - exposes - the - suicide - of - europe / .
25. CNBC, “The George Soros foundation says it is being forced to close its of-
fices in Hungary,” InfoWars, May 15, 2018, https:// www .infowars .com / the - george
- soros - foundation - says - it - is - being - forced - to - close - its - offices - in - hungary / . The video was available there until YouTube revoked the InfoWars account: https:// www
. youtube .com / watch ? v = t41lx _ ur4Y8 (accessed May 16, 2018).
26. The products can be found in the InfoWars store: https:// www .infowarsstore
. com / survival - shield - x - 2 - nascent - iodine .html, https:// www .infowarsstore .com
/ preparedness / emergency - survival - foods .html, https:// www .infowarsstore .com
/ preparedness / nuclear - and - biological / radiological - rad - replacement - filter .html (accessed May 16, 2018).
27. P. Brain, 1986, p. 33.
28. P. Brain, 1986, p. 90; Miton et al., 2015.
29. P. Brain, 1986, pp. 85, 89.
30. Cheatham, 2008.
31. Baumard & Boyer, 2013a; Baumard & Chevallier, 2015; Baumard, Hyafil, Mor-
ris, & Boyer, 2015.
32. Boyer & Baumard, 2018; see also Baumard et al., 2015.
33. Kenneth Doyle, “What happened to the people who died before Jesus was
born?,” Crux, August 24, 2015, https:// cruxnow .com / church / 2015 / 08 / 24 / what
- happened - to - the - people - who - died - before - jesus - was - born / .
34. R. Wright, 2009, who notes: “ After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, ac-
cording to Genesis, ‘they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at
the time of the eve ning breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.’ Hiding may sound like a
naive strategy to deploy against the omniscient God we know today, but apparently
he wasn’t omniscient back then. For ‘the Lord God called to the man, and said to him,
“Where are you?” ’ ” (p. 103).
35. Eriksson, 2012, p. 748.
36. Weisberg, Keil, Goodstein, Rawson, & Gray, 2008.
37. On the importance of prestige, see Clauset, Arbesman, & Larremore, 2015;
Goues et al., 2017; A. C. Morgan, Economou, Way, & Clauset, 2018.
n o t e s t o c h a p t e r 15 303
38. L. T. Benjamin & Simpson, 2009; Griggs & Whitehead, 2015.
39. Arendt, 1963; Brown, 1965.
40. Perry, 2013, pp. 304ff. For a meta- analysis of Milgram’s obedience experiments,
see Haslam, Loughnan, & Perry, 2014.
41. Even more people claimed they were not really hurting the learner; see
Hollander & Turowetz, 2017; and for new data on that point, see Perry, Brannigan,
Wanner, & Stam, in press.
42. Milgram, 1974, p. 172.
43. Reicher, Haslam, & Smith, 2012.
44. Burger, Girgis, & Manning, 2011.
45. Perry, 2013, p. 310.
46. Blancke, Boudry, & Pigliucci, 2017.
47. Sokal & Bricmont, 1998.
48. Sperber & Wilson, 1995.
49. Honda, “Airbag inflator recall,” https:// www .honda .co .uk / cars / owners / airbag
- recall .html.
50. Sperber, 2010.
51. Lacan, 1980.
52. Lacan, 1939.
53. Sokal & Bricmont, 1998, p. 34.
54. My translation from Lévi- Strauss, 1986, cited in “Jacques Lacan,” Wikipedia.
55. Lacan, 1970, p. 193.
56. Milner, 1995; cited and translated in Sokal & Bricmont, 1998.
57. Goldman, 2001.
58. Peterson, 2002, p. 286.
59. Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra), “Mechanics of Manifestation: Intention,
detachment, centered in being allowing juxtaposition of possibilities to unfold #Cos-
micConsciousness,” Twitter, May 28, 2014, 2:24 a.m., https:// twitter . com
/ deepakchopra / status / 471582895622991872; Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra), “As beings of light we are local and nonlocal, time bound and timeless actuality and possibility #CosmicConsciousness,” Twitter, May 5, 2014, 5:20 a.m., https:// twitter .com
/ deepakchopra / status / 463292121794224128. Fittingly, these tweets are drawn from a study on receptivity to bul shit: Pennycook, Cheyne, Barr, Koehler, & Fugelsang, 2015.
CHAPTER 15
1. Baumard et al., 2013.
2. Martin & Yurukoglu, 2017.
3. Ahler & Sood, 2018; Levendusky & Malhotra, 2015; Westfall, Van Boven, Cham-
bers, & Judd, 2015.
304 no t es t o ch ap t er 15
4. Yang et al., 2016.
5. Enders & Armaly, 2018.
6. Stroud & Lee, 2013.
7. Aaron Sharockman, “Fact- checking Fox, MSNBC, and CNN: PunditFact’s net-
work scorecards,” Punditfact, September 16, 2014, http:// www .politifact .com / punditfact
/ article / 2014 / sep / 16 / fact - checking - fox - msnbc - and - cnn - punditfacts - networ / .
8. Del aVigna & Kaplan, 2007; see also Martin & Yurukoglu, 2017.
9. Schroeder & Stone, 2015.
10. See also Hopkins & Ladd, 2014, who conclude that “the potential voters who
tend to agree with Fox News’s overall slant are those more likely to be influenced by
the channel” (p. 129).
11. Gelman & King, 1993, p. 409.
12. Martin & Yurukoglu, 2017.
13. Moon, Krems, & Cohen, 2018.
14. McCullough, Swartwout, Shaver, Car ter, & Sosis, 2016.
15. Foddy, Platow, & Yamagishi, 2009; Platow, Foddy, Yamagishi, Lim, & Chow, 2012.
16. Marina Lopes, “One way out: Pastors in Brazil converting gang members on
YouTube,” Washington Post, May 17, 2019, https:// www .washingtonpost .com / world
/ the _ americas / one - way - out - pastors - in - brazil - converting - gang - members - on
- youtube / 2019 / 05 / 17 / be560746 - 614c - 11e9 - bf24 - db4b9fb62aa2 _ story .html.
17. See Maurer, 1999.
18. Maurer, 1999, p. 4.
19. Braucher & Orbach, 2015.
20. From a con temporary newspaper report, cited by Braucher & Orbach, 2015,
p. 256.
21. Mitnick & Simon, 2002, p. 26.
22. Braucher & Orbach, 2015, p. 263.
23. Braucher & Orbach, 2015, p. 249.
24. A very old ploy indeed: Pierre Ropert, “Histoires d’arnaques : Du mail du
prince nigérian aux ‘lettres de Jérusalem,’ ” France Culture, June 21, 2018, https:// www
. franceculture .fr / histoire / avant - les - mails - de - princes - nigerians - au - xvi ieme - siecle
- larnaque - aux - lettres - de - jerusalem.
25. E.g., “Crackdown on £8.4m African sting,” Scotsman, March 2, 2003, https://
www .scotsman .com / news / uk / crackdown - on - 163 - 8 - 4m - african - sting - 1 - 1382507 (accessed May 31, 2018).
26. Herley, 2012.
27. Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995.
28. Charness & Dufwenberg, 2006; see also Schniter, Sheremeta, & Sznycer, 2013.
For reviews on the efficacy of communication in economic games and social dilem-
mas, see Balliet, 2010; Sally, 1995.
n o t e s t o c h a p t e r 16 305
29. Ostrom, Walker, & Gardner, 1992, see also Mercier, submitted.
30. E.g., Yamagishi, 2001.
31. Yamagishi, 2001.
32. Y. Chen, YeckehZaare, & Zhang, 2018.
33. Fershtman & Gneezy, 2001.
34. Burns, 2012.
35. Gupta, Mahmud, Maitra, Mitra, & Neelim, 2013; but see Glaeser, Laibson,
Scheinkman, & Soutter, 2000.
CHAPTER 16
1. Brennan, 2012, p. 8.
2. G. Kim & Kwak, 2011.
3. Stenberg, 2013.
4. Castelain, Bernard, & Mercier, 2018.
5. Sodian, Thoermer, & Dietrich, 2006; Terrier, Bernard, Mercier, & Clément, 2016;
VanderBorght & Jaswal, 2009.
6. J. Hu et al., 2015; T.J.H. Morgan, Laland, & Harris, 2015.
7. Kershaw, 1983a, p. 200.
8. See Barrows, 1981.
9. Stanley, 2015, p. 27.
10. Brennan, 2016.
11. Rousseau, 2002.
12. Veyne, 2002.
13. Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud), thread starting with “1/ So, here is what’s
happening in the KHL, for those who still can’t quite grasp the banality of evil, Rus-
sian style . . .” Twitter, March 7, 2018, 7:57 p.m., https:// twitter .com / slavamalamud
/ status / 971595788315918336 ? lang = en.
14. For a model of this type of propaganda, see Márquez, 2018.
15. Dikötter, 2010.
16. Dikötter, 2010, locations 996–997.
17. E.g., Jeremy Diamond, “Trump sides with Putin over US intel igence,” CNN,
July 16, 2018, https:// edition .cnn .com / 2018 / 07 / 16 / politics / donald - trump - putin
- helsinki - summit / index .html.
18. Art Swift, “Putin’s image rises in U.S., mostly among Republicans,” Gallup, Feb-
ruary 21, 2017, https:// news .gallup .com / poll / 204191 / putin - image - rises - mostly
- among - republicans .aspx (this poll predates the Helsinki summit, and so only reflects Trump’s prior actions). More generally, see Lenz, 2013.
19. Stimson, 2004.
20. P. Benjamin & Shapiro, 1992; Stimson, 2004.
306 no t es t o ch ap t er 16
21. “Shifting public views on legal immigration into the U.S.,” Pew Research Cen-
ter, June 28, 2018, http:// www .people - press .org / 2018 / 06 / 28 / shifting - public - views
- on - legal - immigration - into - the - u - s / .
22. Wlezien, 1995; see also Stimson, 2004.
23. E.g., Horne, Powel , Hummel, & Holyoak, 2015; Nyhan & Reifler, 2015.
24. See, e.g., Goldacre, 2014.
25. Faasse, Chatman, & Martin, 2016; Fadda, Al am, & Schulz, 2015.
26. Chanel, et al., 2011.
27. E.g., Charlotte Gao, “HNA Group chairman’s sudden death stokes conspiracy
theories,” Diplomat, July 5, 2018, https:// thediplomat .com / 2018 / 07 / hna - group
- chairmans - sudden - death - stokes - conspiracy - theories / ; Rachel Lu, “Chinese conspiracy theorists of the world, unite!,” Foreign Policy, May 11, 2015, https://
foreignpolicy .com / 2015 / 05 / 11 / chinese - conspiracy - theorists - of - the - world - unite
- hong - kong - banned - books / .
28. On how to build trust in society, see Algan, Cahuc, & Zilberberg, 2012.
29. On Pakistan, see “What is the wildest conspiracy theory pertaining to Paki-
stan?,” Herald, June 19, 2015, https:// herald .dawn .com / news / 1153068.
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