Which is smarter -- your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice?In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead to such bad decisions, why hasn't evolution long since made emotions irrelevant? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more o...

In the spirit of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, decision fatigue and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new preface from the author.Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly compl...

'Drunk Tank Pink' is a particular shade of pink. In 1979 psychologists discovered that it has an extraordinary effect: if you stare at it for two minutes, you dramatically weaken in strength.In this brilliant study of the strange recesses of our minds, Adam Alter reveals the world is full of such hidden forces that shape our every thought, feeling and behaviour – without us ever realizing.Some letters in product names make us more likely to buy them (nearly all succes...

We live in a time of relentless change. The only thing that's certain is that new challenges and opportunities will emerge that are virtually unimaginable today. How can we know which skills will be required to succeed?In Five Minds for the Future, bestselling author Howard Gardner shows how we will each need to master "five minds" that the fast-paced future will demand:The disciplined mind, to learn at least one profession, as well as the major thinking (sci...

Unlock your mind. From the bestselling authors of Thinking, Fastand Slow; The Black Swan; and Stumblingon Happiness comes a cutting-edge exploration of the mysteriesof rational thought, decision-making, intuition, morality, willpower,problem-solving, prediction, forecasting, unconscious behavior, and beyond.Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's s...

Whether it's in a cockpit at takeoff or the planning of an offensive war, a romantic relationship or a dispute at the office, there are many opportunities to lie and self-deceive -- but deceit and self-deception carry the costs of being alienated from reality and can lead to disaster. So why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday lives? In short, why do we deceive?In his bold new work, prominent biological theorist Robert Trivers unflinchingly argues that self-de...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lucifer Effect comes a breakthrough book that draws on thirty years of pioneering research to reveal, for the first time, how your individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you.This is the first paradox of time: Your attitudes toward time have a profound impact on your life and world, yet you seldom recognize it. Our goal is to help you reclaim yesterday, en...

According to current thinking, anyone who fails to succeed must have something wrong with them. The pressure to achieve and be happy is taking a heavy toll, resulting in a warped view of the self, disorientation, and despair. People are lonelier than ever before. Today’s pay-for-performance mentality is turning institutions such as schools, universities, and hospitals into businesses — even individuals are being made to think of themselves as one-person enterprises. Love is increasingly ha...

The “H” in the H factor stands for “Honesty-Humility,” and it’s one of only six basic dimensions of personality. People who have high levels of H are sincere and modest; people who have low levels are deceitful and pretentious. It isn’t intuitively obvious that traits of honesty and humility go hand in hand, and until very recently the H factor hadn’t been recognized as a personality dimension. But scientific evidence shows that honesty and humility belong to a unified group of personality...

A leading evolutionary psychologist probes the hidden instincts behind our working, shopping, and spendingEvolutionary psychology-the compelling science of human nature-has clarified the prehistoric origins of human behavior and influenced many fields ranging from economics to personal relationships. In Spent Geoffrey Miller applies this revolutionary science's principles to a new domain: the sensual wonderland of marketing and status seeking that we call ...

Every significant choice, every important decision we make, is determined by our perception of time. This is the most influential force in our lives, yet we are virtually unaware of it. In this fascinating book, the award-winning past president of the American Psychological Association, Philip Zimbardo, and his co-author, John Boyd, show how:- the way you perceive time is as unique as your fingerprints- these individual time perspectives shape your life, and the world around...

Renowned psychologists describe the five most useful insights from social psychology that will help make you “wise”: wise about why we behave the way we do, and wise about how to use that knowledge to understand others and change ourselves for the better.When faced with a challenge, we often turn to those we trust for words of wisdom. Friends, relatives, and colleagues: someone with the best advice about how to boost sales, the most useful insights into raising chi...