Believing

If we didnt believe in things, in ourselves and in others, life would be impossible. Our actions are, in fact, more frequently based on beliefs, nave estimates of probability or forms of trust than on thoughts rooted in certainty. What happens inside peoples minds when they say things like I believe in you or, more simply, I believe it will rain? And how do collective opinions, beliefs, and expectations interact with emotions and produce fear and hope? The author explains the mechanisms underlying the act of believing in all its forms: individual, collective, and even pathological, such as skeptics pathological underbelieving, and gullible people and fanatics overbelieving. This book offers a journey though the human minds most natural mode of operation.

Paolo Legrenzi teaches Cognitive Psychology at the University of Venice, where he heads the School of Advanced Studies.