Hugo Mercier - Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe

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THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK stems from the article Epistemic Vigilance, written by Dan Sperber, Fabrice Clment, Christophe Heintz, Olivier Mascaro, Gloria Origgi, Deirdre Wilson, and myself. In this article we suggested that humans are endowed with cognitive mechanisms dedicated to evaluating communicated information. I am particularly grateful to Dan Sperberthesis supervisor, coauthor, mentor, friend. Besides having shaped my ideas through his writings and his discussions, he patiently read and gave me feedback on the book. Fabrice Clment had written his PhD thesis and a bookLes Mcanismes de la crdulit (The mechanisms of credulity)on the same theme, and we discussed these issues when I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Neuchtel. Besides Dan and Fabrice, the ideas in this book have been shaped by the feedback from the students of the Communication, Trust, and Argumentation class from 2018 to 2019, and by discussions at the Department of Cognitive Studies of the ENS in Paris; the University of Pennsylvania; and the countless conferences, restaurants, pubs, and cafs where Ive badgered people with the idea that humans arent gullible. Lila San Roque generously shared fantastic examples of evidential use among the Duna, and I benefited from Chris Streets knowledge of the lie detection literature.

My deepest thanks go to those who have commented on the whole, or parts of the manuscript: Sacha Altay (twice!), Stefaan Blancke, Pascal Boyer, Coralie Chevallier, Thrse Cronin (twice as well!), Guillaume Dezecache, Helena Miton, Olivier Morin, Thom Scott-Phillips, Dan Sperber, and Radu Umbres.

This book would not have existed without my agents John and Max Brockman, Sarah Caro, the editor who believed in the project from the start and provided very valuable feedback, as well as the team at Princeton University Press.

I have benefited from the financial backing of the Direction Gnrale de lArmement (thanks to Didier Bazalgette in particular); the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program at the University of Pennsylvania (with the generous support of Steven F. Goldstone); the University of Neuchtels Cognitive Science group and the Swiss National Science Foundation (Ambizione grant no. PZ00P1_142388); the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant EUR FrontCog ANR-17-EURE-0017 to the DEC, and grant ANR-16-TERC-0001-01 to myself); and last but not least, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, my current employer, allowing me to work in the amazing place that is the Jean Nicod Institute. In particular, the team I belong toEvolution and Social Cognition, composed of Jean-Baptiste Andr, Nicolas Baumard, Coralie Chevallier, Olivier Morin, and our students, engineers, and postdocsprovides the best social and intellectual environment one could hope for.

I will never stop thanking my parents, grandparents, and extended family for their unwavering support. Christopher and Arthur are the best boys in the world; they have taught me much about love. They have also taught me that children arent gullible, even when we wish theyd be a bit easier to influence. Thrses encouragement has meant more to me than I can ever communicate. Thank you for everything.