Everyday Mind Reading: Understanding What Other People Think and Feel

by William Ickes, Elliot Aronson

Are women really better than men at reading other people's minds? Are longer-married couples better than newlyweds at anticipating their partners' thoughts and feelings? Do we all possess a dormant "sixth sense" that, if fully utilized, could allow us to intuit with great accuracy what other people are thinking? Internationally recognized psychologist William Ickes answers these and many other questions in this fascinating examination of the mind's potential for "everyday mind reading." After developing an innovative video-based procedure for measuring the accuracy of people's empathic inferences, Ickes and his colleagues used this procedure to study different aspects of everyday mind reading in research conducted over the past 15 years. Among the issues they have explored are the validity of the belief in women's intuition, how long it takes strangers to "get to know" each other, why friendships promote mutual understanding, why twins tend to have similar thoughts and feelings, how people's frames of reference can both help and hinder their communication, and the neurological basis for our ability to empathize with others.Ickes also extends his inquiry to broader social questions. For example, are there ways of detecting when someone has a hidden agenda? Are there circumstances in which accurately "reading" an intimate partner's thoughts and feelings actually harms, rather than helps, the relationship? How can the results of the research on everyday mind reading be applied to improve parenting skills, the effectiveness of counseling, even sales and marketing? Finally, what does the scientific evidence say about the widely debated notion of ESP?

Genres: Psychology

356 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Teo]

2014.09.01–2014.09.17

Contents

Ickes W (2003) Everyday Mind Reading - Understanding What Other People Think and Feel

Foreword by Elliot Aronson

01. A Master of Intrusiveness
02. An Apprenticeship
03. The Waiting Room
04. Measuring Mind Reading
05. Getting to Know You
06. Where Is Women's Intuition?
07. Empaths Wanted, Inquire Within
08. Framing Your Thoughts
09. Motivated Misunderstanding
10. Who Wants to Know? Who Doesn't?
11. Perceptive Professionals
12. The Sixth Sense

Acknowledgments
Index

[Flungoutofspace (Chris)]

Unfortunately, I would have been more interested in the actual title, not so much in Ickes' explanations of his psychology experiments. Didn't finish.