On rumors : how falsehoods spread, why we believe them and what can be done

88 Pages·2014·0.66 MB·English

by  Sunstein

On Rumors
Also by Cass R. Sunstein Simpler: The Future of Government
Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas Why Nudge? The Politics of
Libertarian Paternalism Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with
Richard Thaler) Worst-Case Scenarios
Republic.com 2.0
Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge The Second Bill of Rights:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It
More Than Ever Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are
Wrong for America Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle Why
Societies Need Dissent
Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the Environment One Case at a Time
Free Markets and Social Justice
Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict Democracy and the Problem of Free
Speech The Partial Constitution
After the Rights Revolution
On Rumors
How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, and What Can
Be Done
Cass R. Sunstein
With a new afterword by the author
Princeton University Press • Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2014 by Cass R. Sunstein Requests for permission to reproduce material from this
work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton
University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
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All Rights Reserved
Originally published in North America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2009
First Princeton Edition 2014
ISBN (pbk.) 978-0-691-16250-8
LCCN 2013950544
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in
Adobe Caslon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Declan
Each rumor has its own public.
—Gordon Allport and Leo Postman, The Psychology of Rumor