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245 pages, Hardcover
First published February 22, 2022
Conspiratorial thinking is not a weird pathology, experienced by some and absent in others. It's part of a mental process hardwired into all of us. [...] The same powers of abstraction that make humans good at detecting patterns (like anticipating storms when dark clouds gather) can make us imagine patterns where they don't exist, especially when we're feeling stressed or powerless. Rather than languish in the unknown, we tell ourselves stories about the secret causes of our troubles.This is an essential point, both as a buttress for the adage “forewarned is forearmed” and for keeping smugness at bay. No one is so smart as to be immune to certain things.