David McRaney

YANSS 319 – What movies often get wrong about romantic love, relationships, and human mating in general Two psychologists who study love, relationships, and human mating behavior pick apart the movie “The Notebook” and tell us what it gets right and what it gets wrong when it comes to por…

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...

‘Center for Enlightened Disagreement’ launches at Northwestern University and the Kellogg School of Management Novel center will attract top academics and thought leaders across sectors to develop better ways to engage across diverse perspectives

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...

More capable when so motivated, not more inclined

318 - The Intention Action Gap - Britt Frank (rebroadcast) Podcast Episode · You Are Not So Smart · 21/07/2025 · 1h 10m

@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...

YANSS 151 – What we can learn about our own beliefs, biases, and motivated reasoning from the community of people who are certain the Earth is flat In this episode we sit down with the director and producers of the documentary film, Behind the Curve, an exploration of motivated reasoning and conspiratorial thinking told through the lives of pe…

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).

YANSS 313 – Why the number of people needed to make a protest movement successful is much lower than you might assume If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change the national status quo, you don’t need half the country to join, you only need 3.5 p…

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...

YANSS 313 – Why the number of people needed to make a protest movement successful is much lower than you might assume If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change the national status quo, you don’t need half the country to join, you only need 3.5 p…

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...

Sure thing. Right here, fourth clickable button thing: www.davidmcraney.com

YANSS 313 – Why the number of people needed to make a protest movement successful is much lower than you might assume If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change the national status quo, you don’t need half the country to join, you only need 3.5 p…

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...

Quote from David McRaney that reads: "Because as long as people are still thinking, we must encourage people to keep thinking about thinking," from Skeptical Inquirer May/June 2025. Visit SkepticalInquirer.org to read the full issue.

@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

YANSS 267 – 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 Sedona Chinn, a researcher who studies how people make sense of competing scientific, environmental, and health-related claims, joins us to discuss her latest research into doing your own research.…

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...

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion - Kindle edition by McRaney, David. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion.

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.

YANSS 308 – The science behind how our propensity for magical thinking can lead us to deceive each other by first deceiving ourselves In this episode, the story of Clever Hans, the horse who changed psychology for the better. We also sit down with psychologist and magician Matt Tompkins. Matt is the author of The Spectacle of Ill…

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...

That’s true for the famous image, not the one above or just about any other photo of The Dress. The original was ambiguously overexposed, and the brain dutifully attempts disambiguation via your overexposure priors.

The more you’ve seen objects overexposed in natural light over your lifetime, the more likely your brain will assume it is overexposed in natural light and remove the blue tint, resulting in white and gold. The more artificial Iight, it removes the yellow tint: black and blue.

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):

YANSS 307 – Why resistance to true news that you would rather not believe can be stronger than susceptibility to fake news that you wish was true In this episode, we sit down with three disinformation researchers whose new paper found something surprising about both our resistance (and our susceptibility) to both true news we wish was fake a…

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...

Thank you super extra much

Just popping in here to say this is very neat and hello and hi and here is another book on basic microwaving:

Oh wow. Thank you right back!

YANSS 307 – Why resistance to true news that you would rather not believe can be stronger than susceptibility to fake news that you wish was true In this episode, we sit down with three disinformation researchers whose new paper found something surprising about both our resistance (and our susceptibility) to both true news we wish was fake a…

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):

Indeed!

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

Same

‘This American Life’ faces rare staff cuts | Semafor Host Ira Glass has quietly discussed the likely cuts with the show’s top leadership.

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...