The Believing Brain
E201271
The Believing Brain is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores how and why humans form beliefs first and then seek evidence to support them, drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and skepticism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Believing Brain canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1796467 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Believing Brain Context triple: [Michael Shermer, notableWork, The Believing Brain]
-
A.
How the Mind Works
How the Mind Works is a popular science book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores human thought and behavior through the lenses of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
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B.
book The Elephant in the Brain
The Elephant in the Brain is a non-fiction book that explores the hidden, often self-serving motives behind human behavior and social institutions.
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C.
The Stuff of Thought
The Stuff of Thought is a book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores how language reveals the nature of human thought, emotion, and social relationships.
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D.
The Emotion Machine
The Emotion Machine is a 2006 book by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky that explores how human thinking and emotions can be understood as computational processes of the mind.
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E.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
"Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters" is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that explores the nature of human reasoning, why people often think irrationally, and how better reasoning can improve individual and societal decision-making.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Believing Brain Target entity description: The Believing Brain is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores how and why humans form beliefs first and then seek evidence to support them, drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and skepticism.
-
A.
How the Mind Works
How the Mind Works is a popular science book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores human thought and behavior through the lenses of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
-
B.
book The Elephant in the Brain
The Elephant in the Brain is a non-fiction book that explores the hidden, often self-serving motives behind human behavior and social institutions.
-
C.
The Stuff of Thought
The Stuff of Thought is a book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores how language reveals the nature of human thought, emotion, and social relationships.
-
D.
The Emotion Machine
The Emotion Machine is a 2006 book by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky that explores how human thinking and emotions can be understood as computational processes of the mind.
-
E.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
"Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters" is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that explores the nature of human reasoning, why people often think irrationally, and how better reasoning can improve individual and societal decision-making.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
popular science book ⓘ |
| about |
how the brain constructs reality
ⓘ
how to think more scientifically ⓘ why people hold irrational beliefs ⓘ |
| author | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| describedAs | exploration of how beliefs are formed and reinforced ⓘ |
| followedBy | The Moral Arc ⓘ |
| genre | popular science ⓘ |
| hasEdition | first edition ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of paranormal claims
ⓘ
case studies ⓘ discussion of brain imaging research ⓘ discussion of political ideology ⓘ discussion of religious experiences ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
cognitive science
ⓘ
neuroscience research ⓘ scientific method ⓘ Skeptical Inquirer ⓘ
surface form:
skeptical inquiry
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
anomalistic psychology
ⓘ
belief formation ⓘ cognitive biases ⓘ cognitive psychology ⓘ confirmation bias ⓘ conspiracy theories ⓘ neuroscience ⓘ pattern recognition ⓘ political beliefs ⓘ religious beliefs ⓘ science and religion ⓘ scientific thinking ⓘ skepticism ⓘ supernatural beliefs ⓘ |
| mediaType |
hardcover
ⓘ
paperback ⓘ print ⓘ |
| notableWorkOf | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2011 ⓘ |
| publisher | Times Books ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
readers interested in science and religion ⓘ skeptics ⓘ students of psychology ⓘ |
| thesis |
beliefs are products of both brain architecture and environmental influences
ⓘ
humans form beliefs first and then seek evidence to support them ⓘ patternicity and agenticity contribute to belief in the supernatural and conspiracies ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Believing Brain Description of subject: The Believing Brain is a popular science book by Michael Shermer that explores how and why humans form beliefs first and then seek evidence to support them, drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and skepticism.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Michael Shermer