Beyond Belief

“A Financial Times Summer Read”
“Helen Pearson’s fascinating new book… . showcases her skill at separating the well-meaning from the well-researched… . Beyond Belief offers some healthy pragmatism.”—Adam Kucharski, Literary Review
“Readable and punchy… . Beyond Belief is a fascinating account of people who have tried to apply one of science’s favourite methods to knotty and subjective areas of human life.”—Michael Marshall, New Scientist
”[A] worthwhile read, especially for those seeking to understand the personalities of the scientists who care about the evidence-based movement and the challenges they have faced in seeking to persuade others to better attend to evidence.”—Jonathan Wai, Science
“Pearson, an editor for the journal Nature, documents how the evidence revolution has spread to areas such as crime and how it can arm us against misinformation”—Anjana Ahuja,, Financial Times
“Pearson’s vivid descriptions make otherwise stodgy academics jump off the page as three-dimensional human beings with quirks, faults, and wonderings.”—Esther Landhuis, Undark
“An engrossing history of the modern ‘evidence revolution.’”—Ronald Bailey, Reason
“Very simply it is a page turner; it is hard to put down… . Pearson’s telling of how medicine became evidence based is a fantastic story.”—Daniel H. Robinson, Education Review
“Engaging and timely.”—Lucas Magalhães Moreira, Family Medicine
“Throughout the book, Pearson is engaging and often witty, while still discussing the complexities of implementing evidence-based best practice. Beyond Belief is highly readable too – even when navigating difficult concepts in meta-analyses. Pearson outlines the difficulties of teaching people how to use evidence, how to design studies well, and how studies can easily be misleading. She presents the enormous challenge of encouraging institutions to use evidence correctly, while remaining hopeful about our direction of travel.”—Anita Chandran, Physics World
“The response to an evidence-averse world … should focus less on the vigilance of individual citizens and more on the translators of science. Pearson is one of these translators. Few science journalists digest and explain complex research so engagingly.”—Benjamin Santos Genta, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Beyond Belief is an excellent, thorough, and balanced guide through these thickets. For anyone—whether doctor, nurse, teacher, parent, or employee of any sort—fed up with being told “that’s how we’ve always done it”, Pearson’s book offers all the ammunition you need.”—Philip Ball, The Lancet

Helen Pearson is an award-winning journalist and editor for Nature and a TED speaker. Named European Science Journalist of the Year (2025), she is an honorary professor at University College London, where she teaches science writing, and the author of The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives.

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