Populist Beliefs: Byproducts of an Adaptive System?
Why do many people believe that gun deaths are at an all-time high? This chapter explores the cognitive factors that support the acceptance of this and other incorrect beliefs. It highlights how people use heuristics to judge truth, relying on cues such as source credibility and ease of processing to decide whether something is true. Such heuristics develop because they often lead people to the correct answers, quickly and efficiently, but they can also cause mistakes. This chapter focuses on how people often make rapid decisions in complex situations that require simplification of incoming information. It also describes how having demonstrated knowledge is not always protective, with implications for interventions. Finally, it takes a deep dive into one cognitive process, namely the shifting accessibility of knowledge, to understand how activating one’s national identity can change the speed with which related information is retrieved.
