A few months ago, I wrote a post called “Gell-Mann Amnesia Applies to TikTok Too“. AAs often happens, once I wrote it, I started seeing the phenomenon everywhere. A few days ago however, I saw a fantastic example I wanted to get out there.

As you may or may not know, I am a long-time fan of the Kardashians and the various iterations of their reality show. I’d say it’s my guilty pleasure, but I don’t feel particularly guilty about it. They’re entertaining, and I’ve learned a surprising amount about what it’s actually like to be famous.

(Side note: while the money looks fun, fame looks terrible. Credit to anyone who can tolerate it.)

When the original show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” started in 2007, the family was only mildly famous. Almost 2 decades later, they are now some of the most famous and recognizable celebrities on the planet, and the show has grown to reflect that. At least a few times a season they do a segment on various media reports/social media rumors they have seen about themselves, and how people are often entirely making things up about them just to cash in on their name. They vent their frustration that people keep posting nonsense, and complain about how hard it is to set the record straight once rumors start. This makes sense to me, and in their shoes I’d do the same thing.

Given this, I was interested to see on a recent episode that Kim Kardashian admitted she didn’t believe we really landed on the moon. When the producers pressed her to explain why, she had a few snippets of concern, but she ended it with “Go to TikTok—they explain the whole thing.”

Bam. Gell-Mann Amnesia.

As a reminder, Gell-Mann amnesia is “the tendency of individuals to critically assess media reports in a domain they are knowledgeable about, yet continue to trust reporting in other areas despite recognizing similar potential inaccuracies.”

Kim Kardashian knows – possibly better than almost anyone alive – how inaccurate media coverage can be, and how often influencers make wild or misleading claims to build attention and monetize outrage. And yet, the moment the topic shifts from something she understands intimately (herself and her family) to something she doesn’t (astrophysics), those same incentives and distortions vanish from her mental model.

Knowing the media lies in one domain does not automatically make us skeptical in others. In fact, it often makes us overconfident. We are certain we can spot nonsense, as long as it isn’t about something we already know about.

Gell-Mann amnesia applies to TikTok too. Possibly more than anywhere else.