Joseph P. Forgas is Scientia Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He received his D.Phil. and D.Sc. from the University of Oxford and his research focuses on affective influences on social cognition and behaviour. He published over 30 books and 300 papers and for his work he received the Order of Australia, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and a Rockefeller Fellowship as well as a number of academic fellowships and honours.

• Part 1. The Nature and Origins of False BeliefsChapter 1. Forgas, Joseph P. (University of New South Wales, Sydney). From false beliefs to collective delusions: The psychology of human credulity.Chapter 2. Goel, Vinod (York University) False beliefs and the tethered mindChapter 3. Cooper, Joel & Packman, James (Princeton University) The care and feeding off false beliefs: A cognitive dissonance analysisChapter 4. Albarracin, Dolores & Javier Granados Samayoa (University of Pennsylvania) Beyond Confrontation: Bypassing and Motivational Interventions to Curb the Impact of False BeliefsChapter 5. Crano, William D. (Claremont College) The Birth, Development, and Transformation of False Beliefs.Part 2. False beliefs as consensual delusionsChapter 6. Krueger, Joachim (Brown university) and Gruening, David J. (University of Heidelberg) The false belief in free will.Chapter 7. Dunbar, Robin (University of Oxford) Religion and the susceptibility to false beliefChapter 8. French, Chris (Goldsmith's, London). The psychology of paranormal beliefsChapter 9. Sutton, Robbie, Hopkins-Doyle, Aife, Petterson, Aino, Zibell, Hannah, Chalmers, Jocelyn and Leach, Stefan (University of Kent) The false and widespread belief that feminists are misandrists.Part 3. False beliefs in academiaChapter 10. Jussim, Lee, Yanovsky, Sonia, Honeycutt, Nathan and Finkelstein, Danit (Rutgers University) Academic misinformation and false beliefs.Chapter 11. Forgas, Joseph P. (University of New South Wales) Tribal delusions in academia: Three elephants carried by a turtleChapter 12. Fiedler, K. (University of Heidelberg) On the illusion of correct beliefs and the suspicion that correct beliefs may not existChapter 13. Dunning, Dave (University of Michigan) False beliefs among experts and the cognitively ablePart 4. False beliefs and conspiracy theoriesChapter 14. van Prooijen, Jan-Willem (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Pandemic conspiracy theories: Implications for health and polarisationChapter 15. Stanovich, Keith (University of Toronto) and Toplak, Maggie (York University) Reconceptualising the rationality of conspirational thinkingChapter 16. Douglas, Karen, Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Lea Kamitz, Cassidy Rowden, Mikey Biddlestone, and Dylan De Gourville (University of Kent) Conspiracy beliefs and interpersonal relationshipsChapter 17. Ritov, Ilana & Bruck, Amy (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) False beliefs about an antagonistic group