You Are Not So Smart · You Are Not So Smart

320 - Misguided - Matthew Facciani

August 18, 2025·1 hr 9 min·5 clips

Sociologist Matthew Facciani reveals why people who fall for fake news aren't stupid—they've been deliberately misguided.

Certainty is the trap. The opening example follows someone who believes they are unbiased, then becomes less willing to notice they might be wrong. That confidence tightens the path. A mind that cannot picture its own mistake can keep accepting falsehoods while feeling unusually clear-eyed. From there, the conversation widens. Facciani says the biases are not new; they have been with humans as long as humans have been around. The delivery system has changed. Social media makes those biases instant and scalable, while older persuasion usually involved people meeting, talking, clashing, and dealing with the mess afterward. Local life once added friction. When you expected to see people again in your community, respect had a practical reason to survive disagreement. The Internet strips away much of that. People can choose spaces that confirm their identities, ideologies, and preferred side. The world starts to look cleaner than it is. Everyone inside can seem basically right, while everyone outside gets flattened into the bad side. Algorithms push the groove deeper by serving material people like, react to, and interact with. AI tightens the fit even more. Facciani describes a system that personalizes reinforcement, turning old social biases into something faster and more forceful. The point is not that social media invented polarization. It makes existing biases easier to introduce, amplify, and repeat. The uneasy part is that the danger can feel like clarity.

As heard by us

A sharp social science conversation about how old biases become faster and easier to reinforce online.

Misguided works best when it treats misinformation as a problem of social psychology, not just bad media. Matthew Facciani starts from a useful paradox: the person most certain they are unbiased may be the one least willing to notice when they are wrong.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Matthew Facciani explains how feeling certain you are unbiased can make your thinking narrower, not cleaner.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from You Are Not So Smart