What will I learn about: Humans are not inherently gullible; we possess evolved cognitive tools called open vigilance mechanisms that help us critically evaluate information before believing it?

Humans are not inherently gullible; we possess evolved cognitive tools called open vigilance mechanisms that help us critically evaluate information before believing it.

What will I learn about: Rather than blindly absorbing the culture around us, we use plausibility checking and reasoning to constantly compare new messages against our preexisting beliefs?

Rather than blindly absorbing the culture around us, we use plausibility checking and reasoning to constantly compare new messages against our preexisting beliefs.

What will I learn about: Deception carries a high evolutionary and social cost, meaning individuals with common goals have little incentive to send unreliable communication signals?

Deception carries a high evolutionary and social cost, meaning individuals with common goals have little incentive to send unreliable communication signals.

What will I learn about: Contrary to popular belief, fake news and propaganda rarely mislead people into adopting new views, but rather serve to justify and legitimize beliefs they already hold?

Contrary to popular belief, fake news and propaganda rarely mislead people into adopting new views, but rather serve to justify and legitimize beliefs they already hold.

What will I learn about: To improve our ability to detect trustworthiness, we must actually trust people more often, as taking chances on trust helps refine our social instincts over time?

To improve our ability to detect trustworthiness, we must actually trust people more often, as taking chances on trust helps refine our social instincts over time.

Not Born Yesterday

The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe

Hugo Mercier

★ 4.0 / 5(71 ratings)

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Categories:

Psychology

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

💡If propaganda and fake news are as powerful as society claims, why did historical studies show that repeated exposure to Nazi propaganda had zero effect on people's actual levels of anti-Semitism?
💡Why do worker bees never lie to their hive mates about the location of nectar, and what does this evolutionary quirk reveal about the hidden costs of human deception?
💡How do our brain's built-in 'open vigilance mechanisms' act like a computer's antivirus software to protect us from absorbing harmful or misleading information?

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Key Takeaways from Not Born Yesterday

✓Humans are not inherently gullible; we possess evolved cognitive tools called open vigilance mechanisms that help us critically evaluate information before believing it.
✓Rather than blindly absorbing the culture around us, we use plausibility checking and reasoning to constantly compare new messages against our preexisting beliefs.
✓Deception carries a high evolutionary and social cost, meaning individuals with common goals have little incentive to send unreliable communication signals.
✓Contrary to popular belief, fake news and propaganda rarely mislead people into adopting new views, but rather serve to justify and legitimize beliefs they already hold.
✓To improve our ability to detect trustworthiness, we must actually trust people more often, as taking chances on trust helps refine our social instincts over time.

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Not Born Yesterday

Mind Map

Not Born Yesterday

Core Premise+

Beliefs & Preconceptions+

Evolution of Communication+

Open Vigilance Mechanisms+

Evaluating Information+

Assessing Competence+

The Reality of Fake News+

Actionable Advice+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7

Why does the author argue that the 'fax model' of internalization falls short in explaining human behavior?

A. It assumes that humans only absorb information from direct ancestors rather than peers.
B. It underestimates the potential for cultural variation and assumes people blindly copy everything around them.
C. It relies too heavily on modern technological analogies that don't apply to early human evolution.
D. It suggests that people are inherently skeptical and resist cultural norms unless coerced.

Question 2 of 7

According to the evolutionary perspective discussed in the text, why do worker bees reliably communicate the location of food, even if it is in an unlikely place like a lake?

A. They lack the cognitive capacity to formulate deceptive signals.
B. They are compelled by pheromones emitted by the queen bee to always tell the truth.
C. They share a common goal of inclusive fitness and have no incentive to deceive their hive mates.
D. They learn through trial and error that sending false signals results in banishment from the hive.

Question 3 of 7

How do humans typically react to new information when their attention is compromised or they are distracted, according to the concept of open vigilance?

A. They revert to an original state of gullibility and believe whatever they are told.
B. They become more stubborn and conservative, rejecting new information.
C. They rely entirely on subliminal messaging to make their decisions.
D. They randomly accept or reject information based on their immediate emotional state.

Question 4 of 7

How do the cognitive mechanisms of 'plausibility checking' and 'reasoning' affect group discussions?

A. They cause groups to quickly conform to the loudest or most charismatic leader's opinion.
B. They make individuals highly defensive, usually resulting in a breakdown of communication.
C. They allow people to filter out implausible ideas while remaining open to persuasive arguments, boosting overall group performance.
D. They force small groups to agree only on ideas that perfectly match everyone's preexisting beliefs.

Question 5 of 7

Which of the following is true about how preschoolers evaluate the competence of others?

A. They spontaneously conform to the majority consensus, regardless of the group's actual competence.
B. They blindly trust adults but are highly skeptical of their peers.
C. They consider multiple cues, such as past performance and intuition, before deciding if someone knows better than they do.
D. They lack the cognitive ability to differentiate between a one-time lucky success and a history of genuine competence.

Question 6 of 7

What does the author conclude about the impact of 'fake news' on the general public?

A. It primarily serves to add legitimacy to views and beliefs that people already hold.
B. It successfully overrides the open vigilance mechanisms of the average voter, causing drastic shifts in political views.
C. It forces people to seek out opposing viewpoints to verify the information they are consuming.
D. It is the primary cause of sudden, destructive political shifts like Brexit and the 2016 US elections.

Question 7 of 7

What actionable advice does the author give regarding trust?

A. We should remain highly skeptical of everyone until they prove their competence through a history of successes.
B. We should trust more often, because taking a chance on trust helps us learn and improve our instincts about who is trustworthy.
C. We should trust our intuition only when it aligns perfectly with the consensus of our immediate social group.
D. We should rely primarily on credentials and professional titles when deciding who to trust in urgent situations.

Not Born Yesterday — Full Chapter Overview

1Recommendation
2When deciding what to believe, we look for beliefs aligned with our goals and worldviews.
3People who share common goals have no reason to send misleading communication signals.
4Open vigilance mechanisms evolved to let us accept helpful messages and reject harmful ones.
5We use prior beliefs and reasoning to judge how plausible new communicated information is.
6We use intuition to judge whether others are more competent or better informed than we are.
7Fake news rarely fools people – it mainly supports actions they already wanted to take.

Not Born Yesterday Summary & Overview

What’s it about?

Not Born Yesterday (2020) investigates common claims that humans are inherently gullible creatures. With the help of studies, evolutionary biology, and historical anecdotes, the author chips away at these claims one by one. He shows that humans have actually developed sophisticated cognitive mechanisms designed to aid the decisions of who to trust, what to believe, when to change our minds, and how to reject implausible information.

Who Should Listen to Not Born Yesterday?

Who’s it for?

History buffs
Anyone interested in evolutionary psychology
People wondering how to trust what others say and do

About the Author: Hugo Mercier

About the author

Hugo Mercier is a cognitive scientist at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris. His research interests are focused on cognitive reasoning and epistemic vigilance, which he refers to as “open vigilance.” He also cowrote The Enigma of Reason, which explores why reason developed in humans – and not in other animals – and considers its clear evolutionary advantages.

Not Born Yesterday

If You're Curious About These Questions...

Listen to Not Born Yesterday — Free Audiobook

Key Takeaways from Not Born Yesterday

Learning Tools

Mind Map

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Not Born Yesterday — Full Chapter Overview

Not Born Yesterday Summary & Overview

Who Should Listen to Not Born Yesterday?

About the Author: Hugo Mercier

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