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Adam Grant and Brené Brown’s 3-Step Plan for Making Yourself Immune to Misinformation

5 min readOct 27, 2026

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This is an article about how to spot and resist misinformation. But before we get into a detailed breakdown of how to make yourself immune to dubious influencers and professional liars, I’d like to ask you what will probably strike you as a very random question. I promise it’s relevant.

If you happen to be a middle aged woman, do you rinse your hair with cold water to make it shinier?

If you answered yes, you’re in good company. So do a whole bunch of women on social media as well as shame researcher and best-selling author Brené Brown. Actual science shows this common beauty “hack” is totally useless. So why do so many people do it anyway? Largely because back in the 80s and 90s various teen magazines insisted that uncomfortable showers were a surefire route to glossier locks.

Thousands if not millions of us are still shivering away because of misinformation shared four decades ago. That’s how sticky and stubborn bad information packaged in clever ways can be.

So is it possible to learn to spot it and resist it? That’s the topic of the latest episode of the Curiosity Shop podcast from Brown and her co-host, fellow best-selling author Adam Grant.

Bad beauty hacks are the tip of the…

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Jessica Stillman
Jessica Stillman

Written by Jessica Stillman

Top Inc.com columnist/ Editor/ Ghostwriter. Book lover. Travel fiend. Nap enthusiast. https://jessicastillman.com/