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Wray Herbert

Wray Herbert has been writing about psychology and human behavior for more than 25 years.  He currently writes two regular columns for Newsweek and Scientific American Mind.  Herbert serves as senior director for science communication for the Association for Psychological Science, where he writes a popular blog about new psychological research.  He has also been assistant managing editor at US News & World Report; editor in chief of Psychology Today magazine; and behavioral science editor of the weekly magazine Science News.  His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other national publications.

A popular science writer explores new research into the many shortcuts that our minds use to make snap decisions--and explains how they help, how they hurt, and how we can overrule them.

Our brains are marvels, hard-wired by millions of years of evolution to boast a number of mental shortcuts, biases, and tricks that allow us to negotiate our complicated lives without overthinking every choice and decision we have to make.  Unfortunately, those ancient shortcuts don't always work to our advantage in our modern lives--when we don't also think slowly and rationally, those hard-wired habits can trip us up.  This intriguing and readable book helps us to understand how our minds are predisposed to think about the world--and how to avoid many of life's common mistakes.

Among the surprising examples of these mental habits at work in our lives:

• Experienced skiers more often make fatal mistakes on familiar terrain.
• 99.9% of the citizens of France are registered organ donors, but only 28% of Americans are.
• Early birds on jury duty are more likely to succumb to racial stereotypes in delivering verdicts when the day gets late.
• People who are hungry for lunch will donate less money to charity.

Wray Herbert introduces us to 20 of these shortcuts and biases, explaining how they affect us in the real world and how they're being studied in labs around the world.

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