Do You Think People Are More Gullible Today Or In The Past?

[Sunrising]

Entrepreneurs today have made vast fortunes on people's gullibility.

Do you think this has always been the case?

What is your opinion?

A. I think people are more gullible today than in the past.

B. I think people were more gullible in the past than today.

C. I think people are as gullible today as they have ever been.

D. Something else.

[OlderAndWiser]

There have always been snake oil salesmen, because there have always been people who would purchase their products.

[MrChinaski]

People are gullible. By and large, people are not well equipped to deal with situations and events they haven't thought through or experienced before, and for which they can't draw reliable analogies with situations and events that they have. 'Twas always so. What I think has changed is that the variety of information that people encounter has expanded massively. And they are expected to know stuff and draw sound judgments. And they don't. At all. Efficient tax policy, climate change, war, AI, immigration, and nuclear power. Modern citizenship seems to require people to be interdisciplinary polymaths at least at advanced senior high school level. And they just aren't.

The greatest wisdom is knowing when you don't know something.

Or, more cheerfully, if you like Ricky Gervais (Humanity):

There was a big news story last year, about a train crash that happened a year before,
and there was an inquiry. The results of the inquiry were published and there was an expert on the news.
He said, "We've looked at everything, and we've decided that the speed of the trains
was a contributing factor, so we're going to slow them down a bit. Statistically,
this shouldn't happen again."

That would have been it.

But the guy went, "We asked the public what they thought."
Then there was three banal vox pops.
First one said,
"I already pay 960 a year, so I'm not happy."
The next one said, "It takes me 45 minutes each way, it's not good enough."
The last one said,
"I say it's better to arrive at work late than dead."

Why is that on the news? And when is that applicable? In any situation?

"'Morning, Ted? You're in early. Ted? Oh, Ted! We've been through this. Remember I said I'd rather you arrive late than... dead?"

[Emily_griffin]

Honestly, I think people are more exposed to misinformation today, not necessarily more gullible. 😂 We just have smartphones constantly feeding us things that look convincing.

People in the past fell for scams too—we just didn't have them delivered 24/7. 😅

[LazerBean]

I think people today are just as gullible as they have ever been, just in different ways than in the past. That's why it's mostly old people that fall victim to the phone scams that young people know to avoid. Yet young people will still fall prey to social media scams.

[moddy_the_mod]

I don't think it's gullible. What it is - is the dopamine hit of people giving them support on social media. So people - especially weak men and women who need support of the "group" to survive - tend to say things that they think others will approve of. The approval gives them a dopamine hit.

This is why you'll see people with ukraine flags in their profile pics and getting angry online from headlines about intoxicated college kids having orgies.

[exitseven]

people are definitely more gullible. Look at all the people who want to vote for democrats becuase gas prices are too high even though it is a %100 certainty that democrats will make gas prices even highter.

[DryGermanGuy]

Look at all the idiots that think Barack Obama was born in Kenya or that Joe Biden has accepted Ukrainian bribe money just because Trumpty Dumpty fantasizes about it at his stupid rallies.

[thegreenyogi]

More gullible today. We're all too distracted to even spend an extra thought on whether it's truth or lie.

[FreyaRed]

No, the amount is similar. It's just much easier to prove them of being gullible due internet sources.

[sage2021]

Because of AI more people are getting fake websites, scammed, etc.

[KostasKouvalis]

definitely past. I watched a movie about a peasant girl who convinced an entire monarchy that she's a royal from a fictional country🤣

[MrChinaski]

Stuff like that still happens. Anna Sorokin / Anna Delvey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Delvey

[KostasKouvalis]

In that case, I'm amazed how gulible people are

[Chayce]

The past. There were less means to verify something.

[Anonymous]

misinformation is so much more prevalent and people need to go further to research for the truth and don't always do it.

[Account]

I think it is the same, but in different ways.

[Paige2006]

They gave always been