Coming soon on Here And Now

Today I did an interview with Robin Young of WBUR Boston. She's the terrific and charming host of Here And Now, an NPR program that's broadcast nationally. [find affiliate] It will probably air next week - I'll post the exact date soon.

We talked about false beliefs, with the current example being rumors about Barack Obama. As many of you know, we had a recent NYT editorial about false beliefs. Of course, this week's new example is the now-infamous cover of this week's New Yorker.

I'm only reproducing the caricature of Michelle Obama. Generally, repeating an image like this would only increase the possibility that you'll recall the falsehood as being true. Dan Gilbert and colleagues have shown that if people aren't given enough time to think, they tend to automatically accept a statement as being true. And what's more immediate than a caricature?