David Smith quoted by Winnipeg Free Press in review of conspiracy documentary in which he appears

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, who appears in the CBC-TV documentary "Conspiracy Rising" that is scheduled to run in Canada today (Oct. 20, 2011), was quoted in a Winnipeg Free Press review of the film that included a large photo of Smith looking over the ongoing construction on the former World Trade Center site.

Set against the global socio-political landscape, "Conspiracy Rising" uses science and psychology to investigate the causes of conspiracy theories, why we are wired to believe them, and how as a society it is imperative that we separate the fantasies from the real threats.

In the review Smith says: "It looks like being certain - even of something which is very terrible and very frightening - may be psychologically preferable - at least, to many people - to being in doubt (and) being uncertain. Because if you're uncertain, you're suspended (and) you don't know what stance to take."

Smith is the author of The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, and Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind. Smith recently discussed his book Less than Human on NPR's Talk of the Nation and on WCSH6 TV's 207 news magazine.  Read more.

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