What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite by David Di Salvo
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite David Di Salvo
Page: 280
ISBN: 9781616144838
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Foreword by Wray Herbert
Author of On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hardwired Habits
Former editor in chief of Psychology Today
Regular contributor to Science, Scientific American, and Science News
Why do we routinely choose options that don't meet our short-term needs and undermine our long-term goals? Why do we willingly expose ourselves to temptations that undercut our hard-fought progress to overcome addictions? Why are we prone to assigning meaning to statistically common coincidences? Why do we insist we're right even when evidence contradicts us?
In What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, science writer David DiSalvo reveals a remarkable paradox: what your brain wants is frequently not what your brain needs. In fact, much of what makes our brains "happy" leads to errors, biases, and distortions, which make getting out of our own way extremely difficult. DiSalvo's search includes forays into evolutionary and social psychology, cognitive science, neurology, and even marketing and economics—as well as interviews with many of the top thinkers in psychology and neuroscience today.
From this research-based platform, DiSalvo draws out insights that we can use to identify our brains' foibles and turn our awareness into edifying action. Ultimately, DiSalvo argues, the research does not serve up ready-made answers, but provides us with actionable clues for overcoming the plight of our advanced brains and, consequently, living more fulfilled lives.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
"This lively presentation of the latest in cognitive science convincingly debunks what DiSalvo calls 'self-help snake oil.'" —Publisher's Weekly
"A five-star intellectual smorgasbord of the latest speculations on what makes us tick." —Robert Burton, MD, author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not
"This book is the Swiss Army knife of psychology and neuroscience research—handy, practical, and very, very useful. It boils down the latest findings into simple easy-to-understand lessons you can apply to your daily life." —Joseph T. Hallinan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Why We Make Mistakes
"Reading What Makes Your Brain Happy is like eating intellectual dim sum at your favorite Chinese restaurant. Each morsel is tasty and you will keep coming back for more." —Bruce Hood, PhD, author of Super Sense: Why We Believe the Unbelievable and director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre
"The chapters in this book are crystal-clear and multifaceted, and each transmits a ray of insight about how we think. It's jewelry for the mindful mind." —Phillip Alcabes, PhD, author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Plague to the Avian Flu
"Packed full of scientific insights with practical applications to everyday life—a thought-provoking and entertaining page-turner." —Gary Small, MD, UCLA professor of psychiatry and author of The Memory Bible, iBrain, and The Other Side of the Couch: A Psychiatrist Solves His Most Unusual Cases
"David DiSalvo takes us on mind trips to the frontiers of brain and behavior research—and being a superb guide, shows us how each development is useful, exciting, and inspired by wonder." —Jena Pincott, author of Do Gentleman Really Prefer Blondes? Bodies, Brains, and Behavior—The Science Behind Love, Sex & Attraction
"It's hard to put down this smart, readable discussion of the latest brain science from science writer David DiSalvo. As always, DiSalvo deftly offers both expert and lay readers news we can use, in context and with style. Read on!" —Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age
"This book will make your brain happy—in a good way. With engaging prose and compelling stories, DiSalvo provides a fast-paced overview of mental shortcuts and foibles that make us happy in the short-term, often to our long-term detriment." —Daniel Simons, author of The Invisible Gorilla, and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us
"DiSalvo is a genial and enthusiastic guide who makes emerging research in neuroscience, social psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral economics accessible, and even entertaining. But this book is not specifically about research, nor is it really about brains and minds. What it is about is you and me and how science can help with the messy business of trying to live a meaningful, good life. A delightfully illuminating read." —Todd Essig, PhD, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, William Alanson White Institute
"This book is a well-researched and effectively argued guide to uncovering the reasons why we so often think and act in ways that undermine our best interests, and it's also full of knowledge about why humans manipulate each other. If you want to know more about why you do what you do, and how to avoid becoming the victim of someone else's manipulation tactics, I encourage you to read this book." —Philip Zimbardo, PhD, author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, and past president of the American Psychological Association
"Every week the media delivers to the public a barrage of psychology and neuroscience findings. They sound fascinating, but are untethered from daily life. David DiSalvo extracts the practical potential of these discoveries, and in so doing performs a public service that is creative and witty." —J. D. Trout, PhD, author of The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society, and professor of philosophy and psychology, Loyola University Chicago
"DiSalvo takes us on a refreshing voyage into the multitude of ways your brain is busy smacking you around, and provides an antidote to the standard servings of self-help snake oil." —Mark Changizi, PhD, author of Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man
"Want to know how all the little ins and outs of your neurochemistry hold you dangling like a puppet on a set of strings? David DiSalvo's gleanings from current neuroscience and psychology are entertaining, intriguing, and instructive. And who knows? The more you know, the more control you might gain over how those strings make you dance." —Joseph Carroll, PhD, author of The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative
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