This is a HeadGum Podcast. I don't know what you think

I don't know what you say

and that's all right

yeah that's okay

I don't know.

Hello everybody. Hello everybody. Hello everybody.

Welcome to Factually, I'm Adam Conover, and look, we think of ourselves as rational beings right we believe that when

we make decisions we weigh the evidence and we sort through it we throw out the

bullshit we base everything we believe on pure rational reasoning.

But that's not actually how we form beliefs or opinions.

Human knowledge formation doesn't take place in a Senate of Toga-wearing neurons arriving at final correct conclusions.

First of all, neurons are they can't wear clothes, they don't make clothes that small.

But more importantly, humans aren't built to respond to the world like perfect scientists or even

mediocre scientists. Our knowledge and decisions are based on the

opaque somewhat random processes of our messy, messy brains. Let me just give you

one example, even just the order in which

were presented information influences what we believe. The information we

receive earlier gets more weight than the information we receive later.

Our guest today did a study on this, which asked people to make a relatively neutral internet

search for activated charcoal.

Now, you might have heard of activated charcoal. It's pretty similar to the stuff you use on the barbecue

It's actually pretty useful if you overdose on pills and end up at the ER is good for that purpose

...