Want to avoid a terrible holiday dinner? Cognitive scientists at Northwestern have created a game (that you can download for free) that makes it possible to avoid fights and find common ground when addressing the issues you likely avoid discussing. youarenotsosmart.com/2025/12/22/y...

According to actual, real studies into this sort of thing, the number of people needed to ensure a protest movement succeeds is much lower than you might assume: youarenotsosmart.com/2025/05/14/y... Apple Podcats: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6og4...

Always relevant: youarenotsosmart.com/2024/01/20/y...

My first morning as the writer-in-residence at Ernest Hemingway's house. Info about this place: comlib.org/hemingway/he...

Great case for knowing your most cherished identities to recognise when your misinformation radar is likely to fail. @davidmcraney.bsky.social @matthewfacciani.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/y...

Had to use a VPN to get on BlueSky to let you know that I drank chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast out of a Mason jar for lunch before writing about the role of hermeneutics in the pursuit of intellectual humility when avoiding the fallacy of reification concerning abstractions like "genius" 👋

A big THANK YOU to @davidmcraney.bsky.social for featuring the #LoveFactually podcast on #YouAreNotSoSmart! The episode delves into #TheNotebook, figuring out what the movie gets right -- and what it gets wrong -- about how relationships work. Enjoy! youarenotsosmart.com/2025/08/04/y...

I think this is super rad and want you to know about it: I am headed to Chicago right now to attend a conference of scientists who study disagreement at the Center for Enlightened Disagreement at Northwestern. Article about the launch of this place: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/blog/20...

@davidmcraney.bsky.social talking to Britt Frank is one of my favourite things. I loved this episode both times I listened to it. I just hope it won’t take a third time before I put into practice some of the really useful advice that Britt doles out. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...

As this episode of one of the best podcasts around explains, people who believe in conspiratorial narratives are often intelligent, & their retreat into dangerous nonsense like Q can be seen as a rational (but flawed & fearful) attempt to make sense of an irrational world. @davidmcraney.bsky.social

Reminder: The smarter a person is and the more education they earn, the better they will become at rationalizing and justifying their incorrect beliefs if so motivated.. Critical thinking is a skill, like playing guitar. It must be learned and practiced (and the person must want to do both).

Seems a good time to re-share this episode of YANSS about why civil resistance is incredibly powerful and how that works (scientifically), but also what it takes to make it work after the soldiers and police arrive. Guest: @chenoweth.bsky.social - Links: youarenotsosmart.com/2025/05/14/y...

Why civil resistance works, and why the number of people needed to reach a protest movement's goals is much lower than you might assume: New episode with Erica Chenoweth - @chenoweth.bsky.social - youarenotsosmart.com/2025/05/14/y...

Why civil resistance works, and why the number of people needed to reach a protest movement's goals is much lower than you might assume: New episode with Erica Chenoweth - @chenoweth.bsky.social - youarenotsosmart.com/2025/05/14/y...

@davidmcraney.bsky.social introduces a special critical thinking issue—featuring @critikid.bsky.social, @thinkingpowers.bsky.social, @quackwatch.bsky.social, and more. Explore the intro and full issue: skepticalinquirer.org/2025/04/teac... #CriticalThinking #ScienceEd

Why the people who are most likely to suggest that you “do your own research” are also the least likely to do their own research: youarenotsosmart.com/2023/08/19/y...

Hey everyone wondering if you can ever get through to people stuck in cult-like thinking and change their minds (spoiler - you can). How Minds Change is, right now, a Kindle Daily Deal on Amazon. You can grab the ebook for $1.99 Limited time, ends at midnight, here's a link: a.co/d/gMmjgU0

Saved a turtle. Found him in the garage, took him to a pond. Put down 1,000 words in the manuscript for my next book (about the cognitive linguistic beauty of difficult to define words). Edited tomorrow’s podcast about psychology of parts work. Now learning Money for Nothing on guitar. Good day.

New episode: The science behind how our propensity for magical thinking can lead us to deceive each other by first deceiving ourselves – youarenotsosmart.com/2025/03/03/y...

On the 10th anniversary of The Dress, I checked in on Pascal Wallisch, one of the NYU psychologists whose research revealed why we see it differently. He told me he considers it “the ultimate temporal touchstone” of the before COVID times. He was also wearing the dress (will post to YANSS Patreon):

Thrilled to talk #misinformation and what we can do about it with @davidmcraney.bsky.social on his wildly popular ‘You Are Not So Smart’ podcast. I was joined by co-authors @katiejoseff.bsky.social and Samuel Woolley—check out the episode here!” youarenotsosmart.com/2025/02/20/y...

New episode: Why you are more likely to doubt true news that you would rather not believe than you are to believe fake news you wish was true (no matter your ideology): youarenotsosmart.com/2025/02/20/y...

Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):

Super excited to host @davidmcraney.bsky.social this month. Connect with us at www.linktree.com/cflfreethought

Thoughtless Apple tech decisions are imperiling your favorite podcasts. If you want to help, check your feeds and download a bunch of episodes! It’s free! www.semafor.com/article/01/1...

If an article makes your side look bad, then "resistance to true news [is] stronger than susceptibility to fake news" no matter your ideology. And the more objective you believe you are, the stronger the effect: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Chances are, someone you know is or soon will be talking about a podcast called The Telepathy Tapes. Read this first: www.theamericansaga.com/p/the-telepa...

What we can learn about perception, priors, and truth itself from the party dress that sparked a global debate over the nature of reality — youarenotsosmart.com/2024/12/23/y...

Question sandwiches, WAIT questions, The Five Whys and more: How asking the right kinds of questions can lead to innovations, discoveries, and breakthroughs: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...

Your brain is trapped inside a dark box filtering a few gazillion electrical zaps from various pieces of sensory meat and trying to construct it all into a meaningful experience of reality. Really just doing the best that it can with an impossible task, so cut it some slack

You can’t easily stream the original Cosmos, so I did something mad, outlandish even, and ordered the 7-DVD boxed set and am about to binge:

For everyone about to avoid talking about politics for a day or two, here’s a book I wrote about how minds (do and do not) change and how (and how not) to change them through conversation, dialogue, arguing, debate and so on — (link to book and free stuff in the next post - 1/2)

New episode with @sarahsteinlubrano.bsky.social - How our drive to resolve cognitive dissonance can lead us to change our minds, accept our fates, and become more wrong, not less: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/y...

Huge thanks to @hankgreen.bsky.social for the bibliographic shout out in his latest video: youtu.be/d8PndpFPL8g?...

Every American is bilingual. EVERY American. Just Evil Enough is a book about subverting systems. When we wrote it, we came across a system we're all part of, and never notice. It sort of blew my mind because it's so obvious, and yet completely unnoticed. Time for a thread.

While writing a book about why it’s so hard to change minds, I changed my own mind about How Minds Change. Persuasion, debunking, disagreement – learning new things or rejecting them – what I learned about what does and does not work and the science behind why: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschan...

An interview with the scientists who created Debunkbot, an AI that reliably reduces belief in conspiracy theories via back-and-forth chat, no matter how far down the rabbit hole a person may be: youarenotsosmart.com/2024/10/29/y...

Why cults often grow stronger after their beliefs, predictions, assumptions, and leaders all turn out to be wrong: youarenotsosmart.com/2024/11/12/y...

Some of you may know my good friend Joe Hanson and I are such big fans of James Burke we worked with him to bring a new Connections series to a streaming service near you (coming soon)! In that spirit, here’s Joe’s latest Connections-ish video: https://youtu.be/thtKslF8zE4

Why those who are most likely to suggest you “do your own research” are also the least likely to do their own research: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2023/08/19/yanss-267-why-people-who-are-most-likely-to-suggest-that-others-do-their-own-research-are-also-the-least-likely-to-do-their-own-research/

Do your own research: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1G6FUwR7q3DBWI5Wtz6RxE?si=NRFaYao3QW-JgO8OhEfKqA&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A3tZoJ9YXvUAy7CrYQK9d7b

For a lot of us, losing Twitter isn’t really about losing ties to the company itself. It’s losing 10+ years of real, asynchronous communities, professional development, the ability to get gigs and clients, the ability to promo/share your art on an extremely broad scale. The loss of that has impact.

Great interview about the writing process and the dangers of both perfectionism and turning work into identity: https://www.iamdriven.com/podcasts/i-am-driven-podcast/episodes/2147974475

New episode with Simons and Chabris, authors of The Invisible Gorilla, back with a new book offering tools to inoculate ourselves against scams, cons, and misinformation: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2023/07/11/yanss-264-how-to-psychologically-inoculate-yourself-against-scams-cons-and-chicanery

Link to episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-stand-up-85397105

::wanders into new social media service::