Why People Believe Weird Things

"For a very soundly documented and reasoned set of specifics, I know of no better single volume than this one. Give it to everyone you know whose head and heart you respect, but who is flirting with irrationality."—The Baltimore Sun

"Why People Believe Weird Things is a tour de force and a literary delight, and it should be required reading for anyone who celebrates intellectual integrity."—Frank Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel

"Brilliant, informed, and incisive dissections of bogus science and history are a major contribution to what one dares hope is a backlash against the still-rising tide of New Age nonsense and public gullibility."—Martin Gardner, author of Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus

"This is a book that deserves to be widely read. Skeptics and critical thinkers can learn from it, but more importantly, it's a book to give those who maybe aren't as skeptical as you, those who need some clear and reasonable arguments to gently push them in a more critical direction. Read this book yourself: buy it for someone whose mind you care about."—Independent Thinking Review

"Shermer equips you with a valuable antidote to the waves of irrationality that come drifting in your windows or onto your television set."—Orange County Register

"This sparkling book romps over the range of science and anti-science."—Jared Diamond, author of The Third Chimpanzee

"This book is a ray of light in a nation befogged by pseudoscience and psychobabble."—Carol Tavris, author of The Mismeasure of Woman

"The perfect handbook to thrust on anyone you know who has been lured into the comforting paranoias that circulate amid the premillennial jitters."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Shermer makes clear that virulent credulousness is more on the march in our world than virulent skepticism, and shows that his chosen profession is a valuable one."—Brian Doherty, Reason