Brains like
to be happy. And what makes them happy is certainty, a sense of control and the
notion that everything happen for a reason. Another thing that seems to make
brain happy is reading about this very thing, for What Makes Your Brain Happy
And Why You Should Do The Opposite is the latest of several books and hundreds
of articles that show how glitches in our cerebral software distort our thinking.
 |
| Picture unrelated |
Such
psychological quirks include confirmation bias (preferring evidence that
supports our beliefs), framing (the narrow viewfinder through which we look the
world) and the illusion of agency (seeing intent behind accidental events).
They evolved because in general they help us survive and the contentedness they
engender reflects this. What David DiSalvo makes clear is how they can put us
at risk.
DiSalvo
employs the engaging writing style you would expect from a regular contributor
to Scientific American and Psychology Today. He peppers the text with
cautionary anecdotes, while providing study references at the back of the book
for those want to dig deeper. There is little here that will be new to regular
readers of popular psychology, but that shouldn’t stop your enjoyment.
Confirming what we already know is, of course, one of the things that make our
brain happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment