Dr. Joe Pierre discusses his book False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True. Drawing from clinical experience and cognitive science, Dr. Pierre explores how common mental shortcuts—such as heuristics, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning and cognitive dissonance—make us vulnerable to false beliefs, ranging from vaccine microchips to election denial and climate change skepticism. He offers practical tools for countering misinformation, including intellectual humility, cognitive flexibility and analytical thinking—aimed at fostering more compassionate dialogue and building psychological resilience in a post-truth world.
Dr. Pierre is a Health Sciences Clinical Professor at UCSF and Unit Chief at Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital, specializing in psychotic disorders, substance use and dual diagnoses. His clinical and research work focuses on schizophrenia, early psychosis intervention and the overlap between psychopathology and normal belief systems, including conspiracy theories. He has authored over 100 publications. He writes the Psych Unseen blog for Psychology Today. He also consults as a forensic expert on cases involving psychosis and delusion-like beliefs.
LOCATION:Virtual Library CLASS:PUBLIC TRANSP:TRANSPARENT END:VEVENT BEGIN:VALARM TRIGGER:-PT1440M ACTION:DISPLAY DESCRIPTION:Event Reminder - Author: Dr. Joe Pierre, False END:VALARM END:VCALENDAR