“The reason why nonsense is so prevalent is because it has nothing to do with the truth, and therefore it is difficult to evaluate whether it is true or not”.

The book “Everybody’s a Scam” (Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, Toyo Keizai) explains the essence of nonsense in this way.

The subtitle of the book is “How to learn to think properly in a world where cheats are rampant.” This book teaches how to recognize thinking traps and avoid being fooled.

In recent years, fraud has become rampant in all places and situations around the world. Moreover, the number of sophisticated frauds is increasing, and the more intelligent people (or those who think they are intelligent), the more likely they are to be fooled. Investment fraud is a symbolic example. In the world of science, there are many cases where data is falsified and irreproducible research is treated as if it were the best result.

All of these fraudulent acts apply brain science. In other words, they deceive others by thoroughly understanding the brain’s habits and using them to their advantage. In other words, they make the other person believe something.
The book says, “Trust is a form of assumption”.

In short, the key to deception is to make the other person believe something and trust it, and neuroscience is used to achieve this. For example, the brain is obsessed with consistency. Therefore, when consistent data is presented, people tend to believe it quite easily. However, in reality, there is almost no consistent data. Most data is uneven, with fluctuations and noise mixed in. Researchers understand this fact through experience, but the average person smells falsehood in uneven data and sees truth in consistent data. Even if the opposite is true.

Most social activities are made up of interactions between honest people, so we should refrain from being overly sensitive, but by understanding and keeping in mind that the brain is easily deceived, we will increase our chances of avoiding stupid scams. (Kei Kitajima)

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI