Audiobook8 hours
On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits
Written by Wray Herbert
Narrated by Dan John Miller
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Our brains are marvels, hard-wired by millions of years of evolution to boast a number of mental shortcuts, biases, and tricks that allow us to negotiate our complicated lives without overthinking every choice and decision we have to make. Unfortunately, those ancient shortcuts don't always work to our advantage in our modern lives-when we don't also think slowly and rationally, those hard-wired habits can trip us up. This intriguing book helps us to understand how our minds are predisposed to think about the world-and how to avoid many of life's common mistakes.
Among the surprising examples of these mental habits at work in our lives:
-Experienced skiers make fatal mistakes on familiar terrain more often than less experienced ones.
-Ninety-nine point nine percent of the citizens of France are registered organ donors, but only 28 percent of Americans are.
-Early birds on jury duty are more likely to succumb to racial stereotypes in delivering verdicts when the day gets late.
-People who are hungry for lunch will donate less money to charity.
Wray Herbert introduces us to twenty of these shortcuts and biases, explaining how they affect us in the real world and how they're being studied in labs around the world.
Among the surprising examples of these mental habits at work in our lives:
-Experienced skiers make fatal mistakes on familiar terrain more often than less experienced ones.
-Ninety-nine point nine percent of the citizens of France are registered organ donors, but only 28 percent of Americans are.
-Early birds on jury duty are more likely to succumb to racial stereotypes in delivering verdicts when the day gets late.
-People who are hungry for lunch will donate less money to charity.
Wray Herbert introduces us to twenty of these shortcuts and biases, explaining how they affect us in the real world and how they're being studied in labs around the world.
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Reviews for On Second Thought
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was a little annoyed by this book. It had some great information in it. There were a number of things I knew already from previous readings and classes, but there was stuff I'd never heard about and was glad to learn.The thing that drove me nuts was this. Each chapter was on a cognitive heuristic. And half the time I'd finish reading a chapter and still not know what the heuristic was. Oh, sure, I knew the topic it was related to -- self-esteem, or judgment, or bias -- but I didn't know what the actual heuristic's definition was. So annoying. But other than that it was a good book. It would seem from the title that it contains tips for "outsmarting your mind's hard-wired habits," but it doesn't. Which amused me. But it was a pretty good read overall, anyway.