Foolproof

A Financial Times Book of the Week

One of the world’s top experts on fighting misinformation reveals the psychology behind its power – and how we can protect ourselves.

From fake news to conspiracy theories, from pandemics to politics, misinformation may be the defining problem of our era. Like a virus, misinformation infects our minds – altering our beliefs and replicating at astonishing rates. Once the virus takes hold, our primary strategies of fact-checking and debunking are an insufficient cure.

In Foolproof Sander van der Linden describes how to inoculate yourself and others against the spread of misinformation, discern fact from fiction and push back against methods of mass persuasion.

Everyone is susceptible to fake news. There are polarising narratives in society, conspiracy theories are rife, fake experts dole out misleading advice and accuracy is often lost in favour of sensationalist headlines. So how and why does misinformation spread if we’re all aware of its existence? And, more importantly, what can we do about it?

Sander van der Linden takes us through the psychology of conspiratorial thinking and equips us with the eleven antigens needed to help stop the spread of misinformation once and for all.

About the Author

Sander van der Linden is The Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is often dubbed Cambridge's 'defence against the dark arts teacher' and his pioneering research on fake news, misinformation, science denial, and the psychology of influence and persuasion is world-renowned and has received many awards. Prior to Cambridge, he was based at Yale University and Princeton University. He earned his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and currently resides in Cambridge, UK.