Why are we so susceptible to persuasion? In this episode of The Curiosity Shop, Brené Brown and Adam Grant discuss a tip Brené picked up from Seventeen magazine in the ‘80s and end up exploring why we fall for misinformation and persuasive messaging. They examine how vulnerability makes us more receptive to fear-based messaging, how appeals to authority can sometimes stand in for real evidence, and why recognizing misinformation isn’t always enough to protect us from it. Brené and Adam also consider the role of belonging, including the ways our desire for connection, community, and shared identity can make certain ideas especially persuasive. Along the way, they develop a practical framework for resisting unwanted influence: recognize your vulnerability, build your persuasion literacy, and trace information back to its source.
Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connections in a Lonely World - Adam Grant, 2026, Viking
MythBusters: Rinsing Your Hair In Cold Water - Into The Gloss, 2015
I Washed My Hair With Coca-Cola (and Other Teen-Magazine Beauty Experiments) - Seventeen
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Chip Heath & Dan Heath, 2007, Random House
Free Resources, including 'Making Presentations That Stick' - Chip Heath & Dan Heath, HeathBrothers.com
Jayne Modean - Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline, 800-272-3900 - Alzheimer's Association
Dr. Cialdini's Biography - Influence at Work
Dispelling the Illusion of Invulnerability: The Motivations and Mechanisms of Resistance to Persuasion - Stanford Center on Longevity, 2011
Resistance to Persuasion - Dolores Albarracín & A. Karan, 2022, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology
Dr. Jessica Knurick - Jessica Knurick
Jessica Knurick's Reaction Video - Jessica Knurick, Facebook
A Public Health Expert Keeps Going Viral on Instagram for Delivering This Very Simple Message - Scott, 2025, Vox
What's the Difference Between Physicians and Naturopaths? - American Medical Association, 2024
Appeal to Authority Fallacy: When Expertise Becomes a Logical Trap - Logically Fallacious, 2026
Evidence-Based Practice: Levels of Evidence - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Library
Evidence-Based Management - Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert Sutton, 2006, Harvard Business Review
White House Moves to Take Control of NIH Scientific Grants - The New York Times, 2026, The Philadelphia Inquirer
'Warning: This Image Has Been Digitally Altered': The Effect of Disclaimer Labels Added to Fashion Magazine Shoots on Women's Body Dissatisfaction - Marika Tiggemann, Zoe Brown, Mia Zaccardo & Nicole Thomas, 2017, Body Image
The Sleeper Effect in Persuasion: A Meta-Analytic Review - G. Tarcan Kumkale & Dolores Albarracín, 2004, Psychological Bulletin
The Mirror-Neuron System - Giacomo Rizzolatti & Laila Craighero, 2004, Annual Review of Neuroscience
Social Media Posts About Medical Tests With Potential for Overdiagnosis - Brooke Nickel and colleagues, 2025, JAMA Network Open
We Analysed Almost 1,000 Social Media Posts About 5 Popular Medical Tests. Most Were Utterly Misleading - Nickel & Moynihan, 2025, The Conversation
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini, 2021; first published 1984, Harper Business
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time - Maria Konnikova, 2016, Viking
How to Know If You're Being Lied To - Khazan, 2016, The Atlantic
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments - Justin Kruger & David Dunning, 1999, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Recursive Self-Improvement and Agentic AI: Fear of the AI Singularity - HackerNoon, 2026
How Do AI Companies 'Fine-Tune' Policy? Examining Regulatory Capture in AI Governance - Kevin Wei, Carson Ezell, Nick Gabrieli & Chinmay Deshpande, 2024, AIES-24 Proceedings
George J. Stigler, 'The Theory of Economic Regulation' - Christopher Carrigan & Cary Coglianese, 2015, Oxford Handbook of Classics in Public Policy and Administration
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories - Karen Douglas, Robbie Sutton & Aleksandra Cichocka, 2017, Current Directions in Psychological Science
Powerful Pharma and Its Marginalized Alternatives? Effects of Individual Differences in Conspiracy Mentality on Attitudes Toward Medical Approaches - Pia Lamberty & Roland Imhoff, 2018, Social Psychology
People with a Conspiracy Mindset Resist Childhood Vaccination, Study Shows - Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2023
COVID-19 Misinformation: Scientists Create a 'Psychological Vaccine' to Protect Against Fake News - van der Linden & Roozenbeek, 2021, The Conversation
LinkedIn Post on Collective Vulnerability - Brené Brown, 2020, LinkedIn
Brené on FFTs - Brené Brown, 2020, Unlocking Us
The Group Polarization Phenomenon - David Myers & Helmut Lamm, 1976, Psychological Bulletin
Group Polarization - EBSCO Research Starters
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone - Brené Brown, 2017, Random House
Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity - Sander van der Linden, 2023, W. W. Norton
How 'Prebunking' Misinformation Works - CBS News / 60 Minutes, YouTube
Bad News - Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, (Game that teaches manipulation tactics)
Lump: A Memoir in Ineloquent Reflections - Allison Sweet Grant, 2026, Little, Brown and Company
National Breast Cancer Foundation - National Breast Cancer Foundation
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