Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era - Softcover

Levitin, Daniel J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143196294 ISBN 13: 9780143196297

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2017

Synopsis

Winner of the National Business Book Award 

Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies

We’re surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get our minds back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. 

Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories.

This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like "fringe theories," "extreme views," "alt truth," and even "fake news" can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal and is dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, and The Organized Mind. He divides his time between Montreal, Quebec, and the San Francisco Bay area.
From the Hardcover edition.

Review

Winner of the 2016 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

One of The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2016

“We’ve grown quick to outrage, quick to form online lynch mobs; we trade our opinions and ‘facts’ as though they were beads at a bazaar. Levitin demands that we do better. And that doesn’t just mean becoming good fact-checkers or savvy readers of charts and figures. It means taking up real, adult responsibility for our own minds’ work. It means becoming critical of our deepest-set beliefs and, like the scientists that Levitin praises, shaping our opinions with the scalpel of honest exchange.” —Michael Harris, author of The End of Absense (winner of the 2014 Governor General's Award)

“A smart, accessible approach to becoming a better reader in an age where advertisers, politicians, and other interested parties have become increasingly savvy about manipulating statistics to demonstrate questionable truths.”—Quebec Writers’ Federation jurors’ comments (QWF 2016 Awards Gala)
 
“Compelling. It makes its points carefully, clearly, and with a good dose of humour.”—Quebec Writers’ Federation jurors’ comments (QWF 2016 Awards Gala)
 
“Well researched, insightful and concise. This book genuinely blew my mind.”—Quebec Writers’ Federation jurors’ comments (QWF 2016 Awards Gala)

“Daniel Levitin’s field guide is a critical-thinking primer for our shrill, data-drenched age. It’s an essential tool for really understanding the texts, posts, tweets, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, op-eds, inter­views, and speeches that bombard us every day. From the way aver­ages befuddle to the logical fallacies that sneak by us, every page is enlightening.” —Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
 
“The world is awash with data, but not always with accurate informa­tion. [Levitin’s book] does a terrific job of illustrating the difference between the two with precision and delightful good humor.” —Charles Wheelan, senior lecturer and policy fellow, Rockefeller Center,
Dartmouth College; author of Naked Economics
 
“Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin lays out the many ways in which each of us can be fooled and misled by numbers and logic, as well as the modes of critical thinking we will need to overcome this.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Valuable tools for anyone willing to evaluate claims and get to the truth of the matter.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This useful, entertaining, and highly readable guide is ready to arm everyday citizens with the tools to combat the spread of spurious, and often ridiculous, information.” —Library Journal

“A book you may want to have close by at all times.” —Success Magazine

“If everyone could adopt the level of healthy statistical scepticism that Mr Levitin would like, political debate would be in much better shape. This book is an indispensable trainer.” –The Economist

“Serves as a kind of Strunk and White for sloppy thinkers.” —New York Journal of Books
 
“Smart and humorous .... The tools anyone needs to tell good infor­mation from bad are in this definitive guide to critical thinking.” —Shelf Awareness  

“An entertaining, user-friendly primer on evaluating data wisely.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
 
“This is a wonderful book. It covers so many of the insights of science, logic, and statistics that the public needs to know, yet are sadly ne­ glected in the education that most of us receive.” —Edward K. Cheng, Tarkington  Chair of Teaching Excellence, professor of law, Vanderbilt University Law School
 
“Hits on the most important issues around statistical literacy and uses good examples to illustrate its points. I could not put this book down. Reading it has been a pleasure, believe me. I am so impressed with Levitin’s writing style, which is clear and simple, unlike much of the murky stuff that is written by statisticians and many others.” —Morris Olitsky, former vice president, Market Research and Analysis, Prudential Financial; statistician, USDA

“A valuable primer on critical thinking that convincingly illustrates the prevalence of misinformation in everyday life” —Publishers Weekly

“Smart, timely and massively useful.” —The Globe and Mail 
 
“Regardless of one’s political persuasion (apolitical, third party, democratic, or republican) all individuals of this nation would benefit from making the effort to read and understand the concepts presented in this book. Eminently easy to read.” —Portland Book Review
 
“Levitin talks about the crucial role of critical thinking and seeking out the truth in today’s media landscape.” —NPR Forum/Michael Krasny.
 
“A guide for those who wish to test the authenticity of information that inundates us from every corner, dark and light, of the Web.” —The Washington Post.
 
“The timing could not be better ... a survival manual for the post-factual error. Levitin offers a set of intellectual tools to help distinguish the real from the unreal, and often surreal.” —The Literary Review of Canada
 
"Daniel J. Levitin’s timely guide to critical thinking in the digital age makes statistics both understandable and intriguing.” —Macleans
  
"Misinformation is a curse of the information age, and Levitin offers blow-by-blow demonstrations of how words, numbers and graphics can be manipulated to distort truth.” —Stanford Magazine
PRAISE FOR THE ORGANIZED MIND:
“Levitin is about as knowledgeable a guide to neuroscience as one might hope for.” —New York Times Book Review

“Daniel J. Levitin has more insights per page than any other neuroscientitst I know. The Organized Mind is smart, important and, as always, exquisitely written.” —Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University, author of Stumbling on Happiness

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0143196294
• ISBN 13: 9780143196297
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320