Hugo Mercier – författare

If reason is what makes us human, then why do we humans often behave so irrationally? Taking us from desert ants to Aristotle, cognitive psychologists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber explore how our 'flawed superpower' of reason works, how it doesn't, and how it evolved to help us develop as social beings. 'Original and provocative ... likely to have a big impact on our understanding of ourselves' Steven Pinker'Brilliant, elegant and compelling ... turns reason's weaknesses into strengths, arguing that its supposed flaws are actually design features that work remarkably well ... A timely and necessary book' Julian Baggini, Financial Times'Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber have solved one of the most important and longstanding puzzles in psychology' Jonathan Haidt'Reason is more likely to confirm things that we want to be true, or which we already believe. So why does it exist? This book provides the answer' Alex Dean, Prospect

Why people are not as gullible as we thinkNot Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion—whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers—fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong.Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures—when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine—are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility.Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still.

Why people are not as gullible as we thinkNot Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion—whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers—fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong.Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures—when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine—are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility.Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still.

GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017'Original and provocative ... likely to have a big impact on our understanding of ourselves' Steven Pinker'Mercier and Sperber offer a surprising and powerful response to the new orthodoxy propounded by Kahneman and Tversky ... arguing that the supposed flaws of hot, fast, automatic thinking are actually design features which work remarkably well' Julian BagginiReason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. But, if reason is so useful, why didn't it also evolve in other animals? If it is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense?In their ground-breaking account of the evolution and workings of reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber set out to solve this double enigma, taking us on a journey from desert ants to modern scientists, and from Aristotle to Daniel Kahneman. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. What reason does, rather, is help us justify our beliefs and actions to others, convince them through argumentation, and evaluate the justifications and arguments that they address to us.In other words, reason has evolved to help humans better exploit their uniquely rich social environment. This illuminating interpretation of reason makes sense of strengths and weaknesses that have long puzzled philosophers and psychologists - why reason is biased in favour of what we already believe, why it may lead to terrible ideas and yet is indispensable to spreading good ones. Ambitious, provocative, and entertaining, The Enigma of Reason will spark debate among psychologists and philosophers, and make many reasonable people rethink their own thinking.

Authors: Hugo Bachmann, Walter J. Ammann, Florian Deischl, Josef Eisenmann, Ingomar Floegl, Gerhard H. Hirsch, Gunter K. Klein, Goran J. Lande, Oskar Mahrenholtz, Hans G. Natke, Hans Nussbaumer, Anthony J. Pretlove, Johann H. Rainer, Ernst-Ulrich Saemann, Lorenz Steinbeisser. Large structures such as factories, gymnasia, concert halls, bridges, towers, masts and chimneys can be detrimentally affected by vibrations. These vibrations can cause either serviceability problems, severely hampering the user's comfort, or safety problems. The aim of this book is to provide structural and civil engineers working in construction and environmental engineering with practical guidelines for counteracting vibration problems. Dynamic actions are considered from the following sources of vibration: - human body motions, - rotating, oscillating and impacting machines, - wind flow, - road traffic, railway traffic and construction work. The main section of the book presents tools that aid in decision-making and in deriving simple solutions to cases of frequently occurring "normal" vibration problems. Complexer problems and more advanced solutions are also considered.In all cases these guidelines should enable the engineer to decide on appropriate solutions expeditiously. The appendices of the book contain fundamentals essential to the main chapters.

Un libro a contracorriente que desmonta uno de los grandes bulos de nuestro tiempo: el del poder de las fake news.Un libro fascinante y esencial para nuestro tiempo – Steven PinkerUn poderoso libro que te hará menos crédulo sobre la credulidad – Barbara Kiser, Nature.En los últimos tiempos nos hemos acostumbrado a oír hablar del poder irresistible de las fake news, y de cómo las estrategias de propaganda y los bulos consiguen embaucar a las masas incautas. Pero la realidad es que, si hay un bulo, es precisamente el de la supuesta credulidad de los seres humanos. Eso es lo que se propone demostrarnos el científico cognitivo Hugo Mercier en este libro a contracorriente.Los seres humanos somos el resultado de millones de años de evolución, así que parece poco probable que una especie tan poco hábil en la selección de informaciones hubiera podido sobrevivir hasta nuestros días. A partir de los últimos hallazgos en psicología experimental, No hemos sido engañados nos explica cómo decidimos en quién confiar y qué creer. Descubriremos cómo la evolución nos ha equipado con sofisticados sistemas de vigilancia, que nos hacen estar en guardia ante informaciones poco fiables, pero al mismo tiempo nos mantienen lo suficientemente abiertos de mente para cambiar de opinión si se nos presentan buenos argumentos para hacerlo.En este libro divertido y provocador, descubriremos cómo prácticamente todos los intentos de persuasión masiva, ya sea por parte de líderes religiosos, políticos o publicistas, fracasan estrepitosamente. Lo único cierto es que, del análisis riguroso de infinidad de ejemplos históricos de supuesta irracionalidad colectiva, lo que se demuestra es que la narrativa sobre una supuesta credulidad generalizada es sencillamente errónea."En un momento en que una parte de la sociedad parece creer que estamos irremediablemente condenados porque la otra parte es estúpida y fácilmente manipulable, el libro de Mercier proporciona un antídoto que matiza tal idea, basado en un examen cuidadoso de una gran cantidad de evidencia de la psicología y las ciencias sociales."---Felix Simon, Medium