Hugo Mercier
Cognitive Scientist, French National Center for Scientific Research; Author, Not Born Yesterday
HUGO MERCIER is a cognitive scientist working for the French National Center for Scientific Research, in Lyon.
Most of his work so far has focused on the function and workings of reasoning. According to the argumentative theory of reasoning, the function of reasoning is argumentative: to find and evaluate arguments so as to convince others and only be convinced when it is appropriate. Accordingly, reasoning works well as an argumentative device, but quite poorly otherwise.
He is the author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe and co-author (with Dan Sperber) of The Enigma of Reason.
