Behind the Scenes of Misguided

Personal stories, lessons learned, and the long road to publishing my first book

I recently asked my paid Substack subscribers what they would like as an extra perk, and several of you mentioned a behind-the-scenes look at my forthcoming book, Misguided. So, here is some extra background of my book! In writing Misguided, my goal was not only to explain why people fall for misinformation but also to offer practical ways to address it. As you’ll read in the introduction of Misguided, my fascination with belief systems and identities has deep roots in my personal and academic journey.

How it Started

In my book, I describe my inspiration from reading The Evolving Self, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and how that led me to study psychological science. I also write about how my academic interest in belief systems and my experience doing science outreach influenced my decision to study misinformation. In this post, I’d like to dive into how the actual book itself came to life.

Early on as a grad student, I learned how important it was to share scientific knowledge with a broader audience. Social science in particular can directly impact people’s lives who learn about it. So, throughout graduate school, I would write blog posts and try to do the occasional podcast or local talk. I thought it would be cool to write a book someday for a broader audience, but I figured that wouldn’t happen until much later in my career (if at all).