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The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives
Most of us would agree that there’s a clear—and even obvious—connection between the things we believe and the way we behave. But what if our actions are driven not by our conscious values and beliefs but by hidden motivations we’re not even aware of?
The “hidden brain” is Shankar Vedantam’s shorthand for a host of brain functions, emotional responses, and cognitive processe...more
The “hidden brain” is Shankar Vedantam’s shorthand for a host of brain functions, emotional responses, and cognitive processe...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
January 19th 2010
by Spiegel & Grau
(first published 2010)
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Better than Gladwell and Levitt and Dubner in my opinion because tone is deferential (the author doesn't pretend like he knows everything) and because this book adds to America's discourse on racism, sexism, and humanitarian aid, just to name a few things. I can understand how people of a certain political view or who have feelings about a certain issue will give this book a low rating because the research cited and conclusion drawn will rub them the wrong way. If you take the book as a whole, h...more
Very interesting data / insights into how people collectively make decisions. It's sort of like the interesting aspect of using research studies and data (perhaps what they now call 'big data') to see how groups unconsciously made decisions/act, and those are not what you would expect.
At first, you'd wonder if this is another one of those books that covered what Malcolm Gladwell has already covered, more research and studies and how he derived interesting connections of people's decisions. Ok, s...more
At first, you'd wonder if this is another one of those books that covered what Malcolm Gladwell has already covered, more research and studies and how he derived interesting connections of people's decisions. Ok, s...more
Smart overview of research on unconscious biases and other cognitive processes that influence how we make meaning of the world (often mistaken meaning). The chapters on racism and sexism are especially great--toddlers are so racist! And there are amazing differences between how transmen and transwomen experience their transitions. All of the chapters are full of engaging stories and good explanations for everything from Kramer's racist outburst at a comedy club to why people become suicide bombe...more
The author tries to accomplish two things throughout this book: Explain how the hidden brain works and how it influences human behavior. He doesn't, however, explain how the hidden brain has evolved or how it can be changed, which to me is a crucial and expected takeaway when reading about the subject of the hidden, or unconscious, brain.
We come to understand through the extensive psychological research put into this book the reasons behind racial biases, prejudices, sexism and suicide bombings...more
We come to understand through the extensive psychological research put into this book the reasons behind racial biases, prejudices, sexism and suicide bombings...more
What I liked about this book: Its storytelling. Vedantam rounds up all kinds of anecdotes and interviews all kinds of characters to look at how the unconscious mind shapes everything from how much a waitress is tipped to whether or not someone is sentenced to death. Particularly fascinating to me was the section on gender discrimination, in which Vedantam contrasts the experiences of two Stanford professors -- one who transitioned from male-to-female and the other who went female-to-male. Powerf...more
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This book is absolutely fascinating. It describes the consciousness as the smaller, slower (but more methodical) portion of our minds. The larger portion is a collection of nearly-instantaneous rules of thumb for making decisions which are optimized more for speed than for accuracy. These rules of thumb are applied automatically to everything we're not consciously thinking about, and often influence our conscious thought process - even without our knowledge. The rules are learned automatically t...more
It has been said psychologists have a way of stating the obvious. This book is no different. Vedantum sets out to show why humans act in irrational ways. He picks out some interesting examples, like the hundred thousands of dollars people contributed to save a Jack Russel Terrier who was stranded on an abandoned ship in the pacific. Or the woman who spent 30,000 dollars for a liver transplant for her dog, while the money could have gone to save many other sheltered animals. Vedantum answer, hum...more
This is a really interesting, surprisingly readable, explanation of how our unconscious mind possibly affects the decisions we actively and unknowingly make. The range of scope of these explanations spans from the minute to the grand, and is mostly backed with psychological research. The assumption that we as "rational" beings have 100% control over our choices is called into question, and if you're not narcissistic enough to believe that you understand all the aspects of the way your brain func...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Shankar Vedantam makes some startling assertions, backing them up with research and expository narrative. Vedantam points out that the human brain is a trained pattern recognition machine. This does not come as any surprise to those of us laypeople to have studied the subject in various capacities, myself as an programmer in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The unsettling and unreported side-effects of our supreme pattern-tuned brains is the ability to so eff...more
This would have received a 4, even a 4.5 up until the last two chapters. Vedantam does a great job with the writing--it's engaging and interesting. However, when I got to the "Defusing the Bomb" chapter, I couldn't help but feel that Vedantam had his own agenda and own point to get across--regardless of science. This chapter is the longest in the book (43 pages) and it is redundant and the actual evidence is weak. Even in the last chapter (about gun control) I felt the shift from presenting evid...more
My dad's appraisal of this book after a quick flick through was 'raises as many questions as it answers' and reading the whole thing leaves me agreeing with him. Quite a lot of the book is about gender & race prejudice, and the difference between our conscious views and subconscious reactions apparently drilled into us almost before we can talk, including some interesting stuff about the '08 US election. Also worth reading for the chapter on Jonestown, which gives some insights in how people...more
This was a rather unnerving book, as the central thesis suggests that no matter how hard we try to be rational, our subconscious pattern-seeking brain will win out in terms of influence, in everything from racism to miscalculating risk. Vedantam presented study after study that showed this mismatch--people who would be ashamed to be considered racist, for example, will have a much easier time connecting negative words with African faces than Caucasian faces.
So now I have this depressing feeling...more
So now I have this depressing feeling...more
This book is about "the hidden brain" or the unconscious biases from the old Stone Age brain that influence us everyday. It used neuroscience and psycholgy to give a balanced an throughtful view of events and behaviors. Whether it was guns do more harm through suicide and accidents in the home that defending the home from danger to people seeking consensus in a diaster or how it influences criminal sentencing.
For me the biggest take away is that we're all racist - even me. It made me reevaluate...more
For me the biggest take away is that we're all racist - even me. It made me reevaluate...more
Proponents of mindfulness and conscious intent may be disappointed when they read this book and realize just how much our unconscious dictates and influences our decisions. The author isn't afraid to tackle tough issues, such as how the hidden brain influences people's thinking about racial and gender issues, as well as how the group mind can actually harm you as opposed to help you. I found this to be a fascinating read because the author presents some compelling evidence that supports his clai...more
Really quite excellent. I had heard about a great deal of the research, the case studies and the examples before, but Vedantam ties it all together engagingly, clearly and incisively. I'm not qualified to judge the research this book is based on, or even the conclusions the author draws from that research, but I can say this confidently: The chapter on group behavior in disasters terrified me, the chapter on desensitization to mass suffering shamed me, and the chapter on the real victims of gun...more
There is so much great stuff to unpack from this book that it's hard to know where to begin.
I did not have high hopes when I started the book. In one of the first chapters there's a long story about some friends of his who are polar opposites, work together, and are married, and it seemed like a big stretch to make the story apply to the concept of "the hidden brain." But thankfully this was not an indicator of the quality of the rest of the book.
Vedantam weaves together story after fascinating...more
I did not have high hopes when I started the book. In one of the first chapters there's a long story about some friends of his who are polar opposites, work together, and are married, and it seemed like a big stretch to make the story apply to the concept of "the hidden brain." But thankfully this was not an indicator of the quality of the rest of the book.
Vedantam weaves together story after fascinating...more
Vedantam argues that the way our brain works -- storing information, judging danger, discriminating faces, looking to groups for affirmation or direction -- occurs below our conscious mind that guides our decision-making, although we think we are making logical conscious decisions.
He talks of why some people stayed in the Twin Towers and why some left. How our ability to recognize faces culturally like our own leads to "preferring" those faces (and seeing women and men in more traditional roles)...more
He talks of why some people stayed in the Twin Towers and why some left. How our ability to recognize faces culturally like our own leads to "preferring" those faces (and seeing women and men in more traditional roles)...more
I love listening to Shankar Vedantam on NPR, and I can hear his "voice" throughout this entire book. He offers many examples from diverse studies to support his points about our biases, attitudes, behaviors, and how we make decisions, and in doing so, he brings them to life. The book seems designed more for a mass audience than a scholarly one, but that was okay with me. He makes interesting and provocative points, many of which I already knew and understood, but with his examples to round them...more
After the way Freud's theories have been discredited, you might think the notion of the unconscious has disappeared from psychology.
But Shankar Vedantam, a staff writer for the Washington Post, brilliantly resurrects the concept with modern-day experiments done by social psychologists and brain imaging experts to show how much of our lives is controlled by impulses and biases that we are completely unaware of.
For each type of influence exerted by the hidden brain, Vedantam gives gripping example...more
Possibly the most interesting, compelling and universally applicable book on psychology I have ever read. Want to understand the minds of suicide bombers, why people spend $$$ to save their cat when thousands are euthanized daily or why even those who have no conscious bias based on race or sexual orientation still have bais (and what it takes to counter those compulsions)? Read this book. Do not hesitate. Do not pass go. Just grab a copy today and get started. Sure, maybe I'm just in my "recent...more
Jul 26, 2011
Leaving Samsāra
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those who have never taken the implicit associations test
Just did not like the book. Covered a lot of ground--most of the things a person would learn in a social psychology class--but the presentation of different biases were lost to verbose anecdotes. The stories to explain the biases would get so long and cumbersome that I would forget his original point--and all of his points I already knew or heard before elsewhere. Every story was literally 50 words too long.
I was expecting a more neuroscience driven explanation for unconscious behavior/biases,...more
I was expecting a more neuroscience driven explanation for unconscious behavior/biases,...more
While reading this book, I constantly shared the ideas and stories I was reading with anyone I could corner. It was a revelatory read. I think it's altered my thinking about how I think. Ha.
The book gave a slew of situations with some scientific backup about the existence of the hidden brain. It explored hypotheses about why we sometimes act outside of the realm of our intentions. I would have liked to see more about how to get past my own hidden roadblocks, but at the very least, knowing is one...more
The book gave a slew of situations with some scientific backup about the existence of the hidden brain. It explored hypotheses about why we sometimes act outside of the realm of our intentions. I would have liked to see more about how to get past my own hidden roadblocks, but at the very least, knowing is one...more
An effort to show how the human brain affects our decision making in the political and economic realms. The author questions the following assumption (Page 5): ". . .that human behavior is the product of knowledge and conscious intention." He disagrees and argues that "the hidden brain" affects our decision-making, sometimes in nonrational ways, more than we can guess.
An interesting (and defensible) thesis, but the author is not as grounded in the literature as I would like.
An interesting (and defensible) thesis, but the author is not as grounded in the literature as I would like.
I have read a number of books on cognitive science and so the role of the unconscious mind is not new to me. Perhaps that is why I am less than enthusiastic about this book. The author is not a scientist, but a journalist and the book is really like an article for a lay audience. He relates the concepts via personal stories, which are, in my opinion, overly long and redundant. There is interesting stuff in here, but you pay too much overhead for it.
Vedantam tackles tough issues such as racism and genocide and shows how our "hidden brain" with its systems that evolved over many centuries to tackle survival issues may be influencing our decision making without our conscious awareness. Probably the most interesting chapter for me was the one on terrorists and what drives their behavior. Provocative, well-written and, in the final analysis, optimistic about our chances of a better, more moral world.
An immensely readable primer on the latest research into the unconscious minds. While a little light on science and a little heavy on conclusion-jumping, I none-the-less found Vedantam's assumptions reasonable. Like Malcolm Gladwell, Vedantam is gifted at interspersing and pacing the right anecdote to drive home a concept, without getting too personal. Definitely a good intro to the emerging study of the human unconscious.
This has been the most amazing book because it impacts the way you think about most everything. I am partial to fictional works but this is written in such a way that the stories illustrate the science behind the book. Our unconscious thoughts are truly what runs our world and only through awareness of the way it works will we change how we make our decisions. The last chapter on the telescoping mind is really a stunner.
This book gives well-researched insights into how our unconscious thought processes have an impact on everything from how we vote to our reaction (or lack thereof) to genocide. Especially valuable are its policy implications and examples of how this knowledge can be used to influence others. Vedantam does a great job of pointing out what is hopeful and what is disturbing in these discoveries and their implications.
Well, I learned a lot from this book. It was fascinating when I heard the author talk about his book on NPR and I realized that I had to have it. That hasn't happened in awhile. The whole idea that our unconscious minds may play a larger part of our actions than we'd care to admit is intriguing. Vedantam supports these ideas with true-life stories that are sad, surprising and shocking at times. His biases show at times and I think the editing could have been better but I really enjoyed the read....more
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Jul 22, 2011 11:19am