954: Are Scientists Lying to You?
Cognitive scientist Mark Changizi unpacks how mass hysteria, emergent group behavior, and the science behind motorcycles reveal deep truths about freedom, human nature, and why we often believe lies.
What if everything you thought you knew about mass movements, public health, and even motorcycles... was completely wrong?
In this mind-bending episode of The Brian Nichols Show, we dive deep with cognitive scientist Mark Changizi to unpack how society lost the plot during COVID — not because of a grand conspiracy, but because of how human brains are wired to misunderstand complexity. From moral panics to misunderstood science, Changizi reveals how emergent group behavior and mass hysteria can look suspiciously like coordination — but often isn't.
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We break down how emotional expression evolved to act like a poker game of social signals, why forward-facing eyes aren’t about being predators, and how writing and music evolved not from biology — but by hacking your brain’s ancient pattern recognition systems. Changizi’s discoveries in Vision Revolution, Harnessed, and Expressly Human flip conventional wisdom on its head — and give us new tools to decode how society actually functions.
And then, we take a wild turn — literally. Changizi's latest book, Motorcycle Mind, explores why riding a motorcycle isn't just thrilling — it's transformative. He argues that motorcycles fuse with their rider in a way no car can, tapping into deep evolutionary mechanisms that make the experience emotionally profound and physically intimate. Forget horsepower — this is about humanpower.
From freedom of speech to the physics of social contagion, this episode is a crash course in how mass movements form, why conspiracy theories gain traction, and what we can do to preserve liberty in a world increasingly hostile to it. Whether you're a political junkie, a science nerd, or just trying to make sense of the past five years, this episode is a must-watch.
👉 Don’t just learn the truth. Learn how to see it. Smash that like button, hit subscribe, and drop a comment: “What’s the biggest lie we’ve been sold during COVID?” Let’s talk about it.
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