What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite: Updated and Revised

by David Disalvo

Overview

Science writer David DiSalvo distills the latest research on how our brains work into easy-to-understand lessons that will give average readers insights into their habitual behavior.This book 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 cloud our judgment and muddle our decision making. Science writer David DiSalvo presents evidence from evolutionary and social psychology, cognitive science, neurology, and even marketing and economics. And he interviews 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, he 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. Newly revised to include the latest research on the workings of the brain, What Makes Your Brain Happy is an essential tool for understanding yourself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633883499
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Pages:	335
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

David DiSalvo is a science, technology, and culture writer and the author of Brain Changer and The Brain in Your Kitchen (eBook). His work appears in Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Salon, Esquire, Mental Floss, and other publications. He is also the writer behind the well-regarded science blogs Neuronarrative and Neuropsyched.

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Preface to the New Edition
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite"
by .
Copyright © 2018 David Disalvo.
Excerpted by permission of Prometheus Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Preface to the New Edition 15

Introduction: Hacking the Cognitive Compass 17

Part 1 Certainty and the Seduction of Chance

Chapter 1 Adventures in Certainty 29

Chapter 2 Seductive Patterns and Smoking Monkeys 57

Part 2 Drifting, Discounting, and Escaping

Chapter 3 Why a Happy Brain Discounts the Future 71

Chapter 4 The Magnetism of Autopilot 79

Chapter 5 Immersion and the Great Escape 89

Part 3 Motivation, Restraint, and Regret

Chapter 6 Revving Your Engine in Idle 105

Chapter 7 Writing Promises on an Etch-a-Sketch 119

Chapter 8 Want, Get, Regret, Repeat 133

Part 4 Social Ebbs and Influential Flows

Chapter 9 Socializing with Monkeys Like Us 145

Chapter 10 The Great Truth Rub-Off 157

Chapter 11 How Your Brain Catches Psychosocial Colds 171

Chapter 12 The Hidden Power of Stuff 183

Part 5 Memory and Modeling

Chapter 13 Your Mind in Rewrites 103

Chapter 14 Born to Copy, Learn to Practice 209

Part 6 Nothing So Pure as Action

Chapter 15 Mind the Gap 221

Chapter 16 Shake Your Meaning Maker 249

Special Section 1 Suggested Resources 253

Special Section 2 Of Technology and Rewards 273

Afterword to the New Edition: On the Anxiety of Reduction 285

Acknowledgments 289

Notes 291

Index 303

Editorial Reviews

""DiSalvo offers ‘science-help’ (as opposed to self-help) by detailing the mental shortcuts our minds like to take but that don’t always serve us well, with the assumption that understanding brain function helps us fight its stubborn behavior.” -Psychology Today

“David DiSalvo takes us on a whistle-stop tour of our mind’s delusions. No aspect of daily life is left untouched: whether he is exploring job interviews, first dates or the perils of eBay, DiSalvo will change the way you think about thinking… an enjoyable manual to your psyche that may change your life.” -New Scientist

“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

“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 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 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 Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? Bodies, Brains, and Behavior: The Science behind Love, Sex, and Attraction

“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

From the Publisher