Concept
Mercier’s reframe of the causal arrow between content consumption and behavior. The naive story (and the book’s implicit Part-IV-supply-side framing): content shapes belief, belief drives behavior. Mercier’s reversal: behavior is determined upstream (by group identity, in-group commitments, status concerns, material interest); receivers then demand-side select for content that justifies the already-decided behavior. The market for false beliefs is therefore downstream of action-already-chosen, and what looks like ‘mass persuasion installing beliefs’ is more often suppliers of justifications meeting receivers’ pre-existing demand. The Trump-supporter finding (corrections accepted, behavior unchanged) is the diagnostic anchor: when corrections land and behavior doesn’t move, the belief was never load-bearing for the behavior.
Connections
- Defined in: Emotional Memetics As The Floor
- Discussed in: Ch 7 — Emotional Memetics As The Floor, Ch 10 — Political Economy of Attention, Ch 8 — Preservation vs. Training
- Evidenced by: Not Born Yesterday
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