the.com/gullibility
the willingness to believe anything, dressed up as keeping an open mind.
means the tendency to be easily fooled or persuaded to believe things without proper evidence.
from From 'gullible,' which traces back to 'gull' — an old word for a person easily deceived, a dupe. The bird connection is tempting and may be at play: gulls were thought to swallow anything tossed their way, much as a credulous person swallows any tale. The verb 'to gull,' meaning to cheat or swindle, was around by the late 1500s, and 'gullibility' arrived later as the noun for that swallow-anything quality.
- word origin
- From gull, an old slang term for dupe
- brain quirk
- Humans default to belief, then verify reluctantly
- con fuel
- Every scam runs on borrowed trust
- hidden upside
- Trusting people form bonds faster than skeptics
- the myth
- Dictionaries famously never list it, so the joke goes
nigerian prince scams — advance-fee fraud that has stolen over $700 million from victims worldwide since the 1980s
theranos blood testing — elizabeth holmes defrauded investors of $700 million with fake technology claims between 2003-2015
flat earth convention — thousands of believers gather annually despite centuries of proof, as documented at flat earth international conference