We synthesize a burgeoning literature investigating why people believe and share false or
highly misleading news online. Contrary to a common narrative whereby politics drives …

Healthy democratic polities feature competing visions of a good society but also require
some level of cooperation and institutional trust. Democracy is at risk when citizens become …

Political polarization, a concern in many countries, is especially acrimonious in the United
States (see the first box). For decades, scholars have studied polarization as an ideological …

Despite calls for political consensus, there is growing evidence that the public response to
the COVID-19 pandemic has been politicized in the US. We examined the extent to which …

One of the essential insights from psychological research is that people's information
processing is often biased. By now, a number of different biases have been identified and …

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “In our uncertain age, which can so often feel so dark and
disturbing, Steven Pinker has distinguished himself as a voice of positivity.”–New York …

Why do people believe blatantly inaccurate news headlines (“fake news”)? Do we use our
reasoning abilities to convince ourselves that statements that align with our ideology are …

Reducing the spread of misinformation, especially on social media, is a major challenge. We
investigate one potential approach: having social media platform algorithms preferentially …

It is often claimed that conspiracy theories are endorsed with the same level of intensity
across the left‐right ideological spectrum. But do liberals and conservatives in the United …

In the current paper, we argue that to get a better understanding of the psychological
antecedents of COVID-related science skepticism, it is pivotal to review what is known about …