A new book by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin on thinking critically in the era of fake news

The book actually came out in March but I just learned about it and thought some of our readers might be interested as well. Professor Levitin is both a neuroscientist and best selling author who's brought cognitive science and psychology to the masses with books like The Organized Mind and This is Your Brain on Music. This new title (actually, it's an updated version of a previous book by Professor Levitin intended to provide the tools to navigate claims of "fake news" in our post-truth era) called Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in a Post -Truth Era might appeal to some law profs looking for non-law readings to recommend to students. From the publisher's press release:

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.

(jbl).