Chapter 4

Humans aren’t wired to think rationally. That’s been confirmed recently by brain scans, but our irrational reaction to hard evidence has been the subject of scholarly study for some time.

Psychologist Leon Festinger says, “It is psychologically painful to be confronted with information that contradicts what we believe.

We strive to avoid that unpleasant feeling of psychological conflict which occurs when deeply held beliefs are challenged by conflicting evidence.

Chapter 1

Things are not often as they are described. For example, the Montana-based Evergreen Foundation is supported by companies that cut down trees.

Authors Jackson and Jamieson give us eight common tricks to recognize of the deception trade.

Trick #1: Misnomers – Don’t assume that a law/product name does what the name implies. For example, Lung Support Formula (which supposedly cured asthma and emphysema). Always ask, “What’s behind that name?” Does it really describe the thing they are trying to sell me? What would be a more accurate name for it?”

In the world of Unspun: finding facts in world of disinformation, Jackson and Jamieson talk about how spin pervades both commerce and politics. Any number of products with household names are marketed with false or deceptive advertising. Whole companies have been built on such deceptions. Elections have been decided by voters who believed false ideas fed to them by manipulative television ads and expressed in “talking points”.

Chapter One
• Spin pervades both commerce and politics. Any number of products with household names are marketed with false or deceptive advertising. Whole companies have been built on such deceptions. Elections have been decided by voters who believed false ideas fed to them by manipulative television ads and expressed in “talking points”.
• Deceptive product promotion is a minor problem compared with political spin.
• In extreme cases, commercial deception can cost lives.

1) I stole my babysitter's car when I was eight years old.

2) I get up early every morning to watch the sunrise.

3) My dad caught me smoking when I was seven and he made me smoke till I got sick. It didn't
happen that way. He got sick first.

4) I knocked my two front teeth (permanent mind you) out, doing gymnastics on a concrete floor.