Philip Fernbach: ‘Why do we believe things that aren’t true?’

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Philip Fernbach: ‘Why do we…

PHILIP FERNBACH

Dr. Philip Fernbach is a cognitive scientist and professor of marketing at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In addition, he is co-director of the Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision Making, an affiliate of the Institute of Cognitive Science, and of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. In his TedTalk “Why do we believe things that are not true?” linked below, Fernbach does not address the subject of antisemitism, but his message has profound implications regarding why and how it spreads.

Quote: “The sense of understanding is contagious. And when contagious understanding is paired with individual ignorance, it can be a toxic recipe. The danger is that I may express a strong belief because I feel that I understand. But my sense of understanding is false. It comes from those around me expressing strong beliefs because they feel like they understand. But their sense of understanding comes from those around them, and so on. Individually, none of us knows enough to tell what’s true and what’s false.”

Sources: PhilipFernbach.com, YouTube

Learn more Philip Fernbach on his website. >>

Watch “Why do we belive things that aren’t true?” [15:50]. >>

Photo: cnn.com

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“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.