Publications
Books
Mercier, H., Sperber, D. (2017) The Enigma of Reason. Harvard University Press.
Mercier, H. (2020) Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust And What We Believe. Princeton University Press.
Peer-reviewed articles
2024
Karabegović, M., Wang, L., Boyer, P., Mercier, H. Epistemic gratitude and the provision of information. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Karabegović, M., Blatt, T., Boyer, P. & Mercier, H. Intuitive credit attribution and the priority rule. Philosophical Psychology.
Dockendorff, M., & Mercier, H. Argument evaluation and production in the correction of political innumeracy. Thinking & Reasoning.
Karabegovic, M., & Mercier, H. The reputational benefits of intellectual humility. Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
Vlasceanu, M., Doell, K. C., Bak Coleman, J.-B. … Mus, M. & Mercier, H. … Van Bavel, J.J. Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries. Science Advances.
2023
Simon, F. M., Altay, S., & Mercier, H. Misinformation reloaded? Fears about the impact of generative AI on misinformation are overblown. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. (coverage Wired; Internal Exile)
Altay, S., Majima, Y & Mercier, H. Happy thoughts: The role of communion in accepting and sharing epistemically suspect beliefs. British Journal of Social Psychology.
Mus, M., Mercier, H. & Chevallier, C. Designing an acceptable and fair carbon tax: The role of mental accounting. PLoS Climate.
Farrell, H., Mercier, H. & Schwartzberg, M. Analytical democratic theory: A microfoundational approach. American Political Science Review. (see also The New Libertarian Elitists in Democracy)
Herrera Masurel, A., Altay, S. & Mercier, H. Does nuclear energy produce neodymium? Negative perception of nuclear energy drives the assumption that it is polluting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. (coverage in Weekendavisen)
McKay, R. & Mercier, H. Delusions as epistemic hypervigilance. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Altay, S., Hacquin, A., Chevallier, C. , & Mercier, H . Information delivered by a chatbot has a positive impact on COVID-19 vaccines attitudes and intentions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. (coverage STAT, Pour la Science, France Info, review in Rapid Reviews)
2022
Mercier, H. & Claidière, N. Does discussion make crowds any wiser? Cognition. Twitter thread
Liu, S., Altay, S., & Mercier, H. Being green or being nice? People are more likely to share nicer but potentially less impactful green messages. Climatic Change.
Hacquin, AS., Altay, S., Aarøe, L. & Mercier, H. Disgust sensitivity and public opinion on nuclear energy. Journal of Environmental Psychology. (coverage in Weekendavisen)
Altay, S., Schwartz, M., Hacquin, AS., Allard, A., Blancke, S. & Mercier, H. Scaling up interactive argumentation by providing counterarguments with a chatbot. Nature Human Behavior.
Altay, S., Hacquin, AS. & Mercier, H. Why do so few people share fake news? It hurts their reputation. New Media and Society.
Acerbi, A., Altay, S., & Mercier, H. Fighting misinformation or fighting for information? Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. (coverage Futura Sciences, NiemanLab, rfi)
Altay, S., de Araujo, E. & Mercier, H. “If this account is true, it is most enormously wonderful”: Interestingness-if-true and the sharing of true and false news. Digital Journalism. (coverage Taiwan FactCheck Center, RQ1)
Mercier, H. Reputation management and cultural evolution. Journal of Cognition and Culture.
2021
de Araujo, E., Altay, S. , Bor, A., & Mercier, H. Dominant jerks: Sharing offensive statements can be used to demonstrate dominance. Social Psychological Bulletin.
Mercier, H., Hacquin, A.-S. & Claidière, N. Being easy to communicate might make verdicts based on confessions more legitimate. Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Mercier, H., Dockendorff, M., Majima, Y., Hacquin, A.-S. & Schwartzberg, M. Intuitions about the epistemic virtues of majority voting. Thinking & Reasoning.
Mercier, H. & Boyer, P. Truth-making institutions: From divination, ordeals and oaths to judicial torture and rules of evidence. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Mahr, J., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., & Csibra, G. The effect of disagreement on children’s source memory performance. PLoS One.
Ueshima, A., Mercier, H. & Kameda, T. Social deliberation systematically shifts resource allocation decisions by focusing on the fate of the least well-off. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Chevallier, C., Hacquin, A.-S., & Mercier, H. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: shortening the last mile. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
2020
Altay, S., Majima, Y. & Mercier, H. It’s my idea! Reputation management and idea appropriation. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Prado, J., Léone, J., Epinat-Duclos, J., Trouche, E. & Mercier, H. The neural bases of argumentative reasoning. Brain and Language.
Altay, S., Claidière, N. & Mercier, H. It happened to a friend of a friend: Inaccurate source reporting in rumor diffusion. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Mercier, H. The cultural evolution of oaths, ordeals, and lie detectors. Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Altay, S. & Mercier, H. Framing messages for vaccination supporters. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
Altay, S., & Mercier, H. Relevance Is socially rewarded, but not at the price of accuracy. Evolutionary Psychology.
Charafeddine, R., Zambrana, I.M., Triniol, B., Mercier, H., Clément, F., Kaufmann, L., Reboul, A., Pons, F. & Van der Henst, J-B. How preschoolers associate power with gender in male-female interactions: a cross-cultural investigation. Sex Roles.
2019
Mercier, H., Majima, Y., Claidière, N., Léone, J. (2019) Obstacles to the spread of unintuitive beliefs. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Mascaro, O., Aguirre, M., Brun, M., Couderc, A. & Mercier, H. Nonverbal rhetoric: Two- to four-year-old children select relevant evidence when trying to influence others. Developmental Science.
Mercier, H., & Miton, H. Utilizing simple cues to informational dependency. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Charafeddine, R., Yamada, T., Matsui, T., Sudo, M., Germain, P., Bernard, S., Castelain, T., Mercier, H. & Van der Henst, J.-B. Cross-cultural differences in the valuing of dominance by young children. Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Mercier, H. & Morin, O. Majority rules: how good are we at aggregating convergent opinions? Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Trouche, E., Shao, J. & Mercier, H. Objective evaluation of demonstrative arguments. Argumentation.
2018
Mazzarella, D., Reinecke, R., Noveck, I. & Mercier, H. Saying, presupposing and implicating: How pragmatics modulates commitment. Journal of Pragmatics.
Mazzarella, D., Trouche, E., Mercier, H. & Noveck, I. Believing what you’re told: Politeness and scalar inferences. Frontiers in Psychology.
Trouche, E., Johansson, P., Hall, L. & Mercier, H. Vigilant conservatism in evaluating communicated information. PLoS One.
Castelain, T., Bernard, S. & Mercier, H. Evidence that two‐year‐old children are sensitive to information presented in arguments. Infancy.
Mercier, H. Sudo, M., Castelain, T., Bernard, S. & Matsui, T. Japanese preschoolers’ evaluation of circular and non-circular arguments. European Journal of Developmental Psychology.
Mercier, H., Majima, Y., & Miton, H. Willingness to transmit and the spread of pseudo-scientific beliefs. Applied Cognitive Psychology.
Boku, M., Yama, H. & Mercier, H. Robust improvements on reasoning performance following discussion in Japan. Japanese Psychological Research.
2017
Mercier, H., Boudry, M. Paglieri, F. & Trouche, E. Natural born arguers: Teaching how to make the best of our reasoning abilities. Educational Psychologist.
Mercier, H. How gullible are we? A review of the evidence from psychology and social science. Review of General Psychology.
Claidière, N., Trouche, E. & Mercier, H. Argumentation and the diffusion of counter-intuitive beliefs. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Mercier, H., Dezecache, G. & Scott-Phillips, T. Strategically communicating minds. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Mercier, H., Rolison, J., Stragà, M., Ferrante, D., Walsh, C. & Girotto, V. Questioning the preparatory function of counterfactual thinking. Memory & Cognition.
Mercier, H., Politzer, G. & Sperber, D. What causes failure to apply the Pigeonhole Principle in simple reasoning problems? Thinking & Reasoning.
Vullioud, C., Clément, F., Scott-Phillips, T. & Mercier, H. Confidence as an expression of commitment: Why misplaced expressions of confidence backfire. Evolution and Human Behavior.
2016
Charafeddine, R., Mercier, H., Clément, F., Kaufman, L., Reboul, A., Van der Henst, J.-B. Children's allocation of resources in social dominance situations. Developmental Psychology. (coverage The Atlantic)
Trouche, E., Johansson, P., Hall, L. & Mercier, H. The selective laziness of reasoning. Cognitive Science. (coverage Neuroskeptic, Ars Technica, braindecoder, Le Monde, NYmag, Business Insider and NPR)
Bernard, S., Castelain, T., Mercier, H., Van der Henst, J. B., Kaufmann, L. & Clément, F. The boss is always right: Preschooler endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Terrier, N., Bernard, S., Mercier, H., & Clément, F. Visual access trumps gender in 3- and 4-year-old children’s endorsement of testimony. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Mercier, H. Making science education more natural – Some ideas from the argumentative theory of reasoning. German Journal of Educational Psychology. Special issue ‘Learning through communication.’
Castelain, T., Girotto, V., Jamet, F. & Mercier, H. Evidence for benefits of argumentation in a Mayan indigenous population. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Mercier, H. The Argumentative Theory: Predictions and empirical evidence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Bernard, S., Clément, F. & Mercier, H. Pure wishful thinking and its moderation in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Mercier, H., Deguchi, M., Van der Henst, J-B. & Yama, H. The benefits of argumentation are cross-culturally robust: the case of Japan. Thinking & Reasoning.
Castelain, T., Bernard, S., Van der Henst, J.-B. & Mercier, H. The influence of power and reason on young Maya children’s endorsement of testimony. Developmental Science.
2015
Miton, H. & Mercier, H. Cognitive obstacles to pro-vaccination beliefs. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. (coverage Science et Avenir)
Charafeddine, R., Mercier, H., Clément, F., Kaufmann, L., Reboul, A., & Van der Henst, J. B. How preschoolers use cues of dominance to make sense of their social environment. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Miton, H, Claidière, N & Mercier, H. Universal cognitive mechanisms explain the success of bloodletting. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Mercier, H., Trouche, E., Yama, H., Heintz, C. & Girotto, V. Experts and laymen grossly underestimate the benefits of argumentation for reasoning. Thinking & Reasoning.
Mercier, H. Zhang, J., Qu, Y., Lu, P. & Van der Henst, J.-B. Do Easterners and Westerners treat contradiction differently? Journal of Cognition and Culture.
2014
Trouche, E., Sander, E. & Mercier, H. Arguments, more than confidence, explain the good performance of reasoning groups. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Mercier, H., Bernard, S. & Clément, F. Early sensitivity to arguments: How preschoolers weight circular arguments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. (coverage: Research Digest, ORF, BBC World Service).
Mercier, H. & Heintz, C. Scientists’ argumentative reasoning. Thematic issue of Topoi.
Bicchieri, C. & Mercier, H. (2014) Norms and beliefs: how change occurs. The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly.
2013
Mercier, H. Recording and explaining cultural differences in argumentation. Journal of Cognition and Culture
Mercier, H. The function of reasoning: Argumentative and pragmatic alternatives. Thinking and Reasoning
Dezecache, G., Mercier, H. & Scott-Phillips, T. An evolutionary approach on emotional communication. Journal of Pragmatics.
Strickland, B. & Mercier, H. Bias neglect: A blind spot in the evaluation of scientific results. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Mercier, H. & Heintz, C. The place of evolved cognition in scientific thinking. Religion, Brain and Behavior
Bicchieri, C. & Mercier, H. Self-serving biases and public justifications in trust games. Synthese
2012
Landemore, H. & Mercier, H. Talking it out’: Deliberation with others versus deliberation within. Análise Social
Mercier, H. & Strickland, B. Evaluating arguments from the reaction of the audience. Thinking and Reasoning
Mercier, H. Looking for arguments. Argumentation
Mercier, H. . The social functions of explicit coherence evaluation. Mind & Society.
Bernard, S., Mercier, H. & Clément, F. The power of well connected arguments: Are children sensitive to the connective because? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Mercier, H., Yama, H., Kawasaki, Y., Adachi, K. & Van der Henst, J-B. Is the use of averaging in advice taking modulated by culture? Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Mercier, H., Landemore, H. Reasoning is for arguing: Understanding the successes and failures of deliberation Political Psychology.
2011
Mercier, H. What good is moral reasoning? Mind & Society.
Mercier, H. . When experts argue: explaining the best and the worst of reasoning Argumentation.
Mercier, H. Reasoning serves argumentation in children Cognitive Development.
Mercier, H. On the universality of argumentative reasoning Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Mercier, H., Sperber, D. Argumentation: its adaptiveness and efficacy Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Response)
Mercier, H., Sperber, D. Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Target article) (Spanish translation) (Coverage, see here)
2010 and earlier
Mercier, H. The social origins of folk epistemology. Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
Sperber, D., Clément, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G. & Wilson, D. Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language.
Van der Henst, J-B., Chevallier, C., Schaeken, W., Mercier, H. & Noveck, I . Dealing with indeterminacy in spatial descriptions Psychological Research.
Politzer, G. & Mercier, H. Solving categorical syllogisms with singular premises. Thinking & Reasoning.
Van der Henst, J-B., Mercier, H., Yama, H., Kawasaki, Y. & Adachi, K. Dealing with contradiction in a communicative context: a cross-cultural study. Intercultural Pragmatics.
File drawer
Hacquin, A.S., Mercier, H. & Chevallier, C. Improving preventive health behaviors in the COVID-19 crisis: a messaging intervention in a large nationally representative sample.
Hacquin, A-S, Altay, S., de Araujo, E., Chevallier, C. & Mercier, H. Sharp rise in vaccine hesitancy in a large and representative sample of the French population: reasons for vaccine hesitancy
Edited book and special issues
Mercier, H. (Ed.) (2014) Psychology and Culture. Thematic issue of Topoi.
Mercier, H. (Ed.) (2013) Recording and Explaining Cultural Differences in Argumentation. Special issue of the Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13(5).
Van der Henst, J-B., Mercier, H. (Eds.) (2009) Darwin en tête ! L'Evolution et les sciences cognitives. Grenoble: PUG.
Book chapters
Mercier, H. (in press) How good are we at evaluating communicated information? In Baggini, J. (Ed.) How Do We Know? The Social Dimension of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press
Dezecache, G., & Mercier, H. (in press) Emotional vigilance. In Shackelford, T. & Al-Shawaf, L. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions. Oxford University Press.
Mercier, H. (in press) A paradox of information aggregation: We do it well but think about it poorly, and why this is a problem for institutions. In Ballantyne, N. & Dunning, D. (Eds.). Reason, Bias, and Inquiry: New Perspectives from the Crossroads of Epistemology and Psychology. Oxford University Press.
Mercier, H. & Altay, S. (in press) Do cultural misbeliefs cause costly behavior? In Musolino, J., Hemmer, P. & Sommer, J. (Eds.) The Cognitive Science of Belief: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge University Press.
Mercier, H., Sperber, D. (2020) Bounded reason in a social world. Routledge Handbook on Bounded Rationality.
Mercier, H. (2018) Reasoning and argumentation. In Thompson, V.A. & Ball, L.V. (Eds.) International Handbook of Thinking & Reasoning. Psychology Press.
Mercier, H. (2018) Reasoning and argumentation. In Callan, H. (Ed.) International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Mercier, H., Castelain, T., Hamid, N. & Marín Picado, B. (2017) The power of moral arguments. In Bonnefon, J.-F. & Trémolière, B. (Eds.) Moral Inferences. Psychology Press.
Mercier, H. (2016) Confirmation bias – Myside bias. In Cognitive Illusions, 2nd ed. (Pohl, R.) Psychology Press.
De Vignemont, F. & Mercier, H. (2016) Under influence. In Kornblith, H. & McLaughlin, B. (Eds) Alvin Goldman and His Critics. Blackwell.
Mercier, H., Bonnier, P. & Trouche, E. (2016) Why don't people produce better arguments? In Macchi, L., Bagassi, M. & Viale, R. (Eds.) The Language of Thought. MIT Press.
Mercier, H. (2013) Using evolutionary thinking to cut across disciplines: the example of the argumentative theory of reasoning. In Zentall, T. & Crowley, P. (Eds.) Comparative Decision Making. Oxford University Press.
Mercier, H. (2013) Our pigheaded core: How we became smarter to be influenced by other people. In Calcott, B., Joyce, R. & Sterelny, K. (Eds.) Evolution, Cooperation, and Complexity. MIT Press.
Sperber, D. & Mercier, H. (in press) Reasoning as a social competence. In Landemore, H. and Elster, J. (Eds.) Collective Wisdom. Cambridge University Press.
Mercier, H. (2009) “Modularité“ et “Psychologie évolutionniste”. In Thomas, F., Lefèvre, T. & Raymond, M. (Ed.) Biologie evolutive. Bruxelles : De Boeck.
Mercier, H. & Sperber, D. (2009) “Intuitive and reflective inferences.” In Evans, J. St. B. T. and Frankish, K. (Ed.) In two minds: Dual processes and beyond. Oxford University Press.
Mercier, H & Van der Henst, J-B. (2009) “La Psychologie évolutionniste.” In Van der Henst, J-B. and Mercier, H. (Ed.) Darwin en tête ! L'Evolution et les sciences cognitives. Grenoble: PUG
Noveck, I., Mercier, H. & Van der Henst, J-B. (2007) “Some interpretational difficulties regarding the Social Contract account of the content effect”. In Roberts, M.J. (Ed.) Integrating the mind. Hove: Psychology Press.
Van der Henst, J-B. & Mercier, H. (2007) “Psychologie évolutionniste et raisonnement.” In Rossi, S. and Van der Henst, J-B. (Ed.) Psychologies du raisonnement. Bruxelles: DeBoeck
Noveck, I., Van der Henst, J-B., Rossi, S. & Mercier, H. (2007) “Psychologie cognitive et raisonnement.” In Rossi, S. and Van der Henst, J-B. (Ed.) Psychologies du raisonnement. Bruxelles: DeBoeck
Mercier, H. & Van der Henst, J-B. (2007) “Psychologie évolutionniste” In Baudouin, J-Y. (Ed.) Psychologie cognitive – tome 1 : L’adulte. Breal.
Other publications
Mercier, H. Divination as polling. Comment on Boyer’s Why divination? Evolved psychology and strategic interaction in the production of truth. Current Anthropology.
Mercier, H. & Sperber, D. Précis of The Enigma of Reason, and reply to commentaries. Teorema.
Altay, S., & Mercier, H. Rationalizations primarily serve reputation management, not decision making. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Comment)
Sperber, D. & Mercier, H. Why a modular approach to reason? Reply to commentaries on The Enigma of Reason. Mind & Language.
Mercier, H. A related proposal: An interactionist perspective on reason. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Comment)
Sperber, D, and Mercier, H. Benign Illusions in a Benevolent Community of Knowledge? American Journal of Psychology
Mercier, H. Some clarifications about the argumentative theory of reasoning. A reply to Santibáñez Yañez Informal logic
Mercier, H. & Sperber, D. “Two Heads Are Better” Stands to Reason. Science (Letter)
Mercier, H. Self-deception: adaptation or by-product? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Comment)
Mercier, H How to cut a concept? Review of Doing without Concepts by Edouard Machery. Biology & Philosophy