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Author: Kevin Simler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495995
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 417
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Book Description
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is the elephant in the brain. Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their official ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.
Author: Kevin Simler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495995
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Get Book Here
Book Description
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is the elephant in the brain. Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their official ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.
Author: Uri Gneezy
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610393120
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Can economics be passionate? Can it center on people and what really matters to them day-in and day-out. And help us understand their hidden motives for why they do what they do in everyday life? Uri Gneezy and John List are revolutionaries. Their ideas and methods for revealing what really works in addressing big social, business, and economic problems gives us new understanding of the motives underlying human behavior. We can then structure incentives that can get people to move mountains, change their behavior -- or at least get a better deal. But finding the right incentive can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Gneezy and List's pioneering approach is to embed themselves in the factories, schools, communities, and offices where people work, live, and play. Then, through large-scale field experiments conducted "in the wild," Gneezy and List observe people in their natural environments without them being aware that they are observed. Their randomized experiments have revealed ways to close the gap between rich and poor students; to stop the violence plaguing inner-city schools; to decipher whether women are really less competitive than men; to correctly price products and services; and to discover the real reasons why people discriminate. To get the answers, Gneezy and List boarded planes, helicopters, trains, and automobiles to embark on journeys from the foothills of Kilimanjaro to California wineries; from sultry northern India to the chilly streets of Chicago; from the playgrounds of schools in Israel to the boardrooms of some of the world's largest corporations. In The Why Axis, they take us along for the ride, and through engaging and colorful stories, present lessons with big payoffs. Their revelatory, startling, and urgent discoveries about how incentives really work are both revolutionary and immensely practical. This research will change both the way we think about and take action on big and little problems. Instead of relying on assumptions, we can find out, through evidence, what really works. Anyone working in business, politics, education, or philanthropy can use the approach Gneezy and List describe in The Why Axis to reach a deeper, nuanced understanding of human behavior, and a better understanding of what motivates people and why.
Author: Baugh, James R.
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781455611959
Category : Goal (Psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Author: James R. Baugh
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN: 9781589803763
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
To create a balance between our motives and our goals, we must first learn to recognize the six hidden motives that weaken our ability to succeed. During counseling sessions, Dr. James R. Baugh discovered a correlation between the victimized feelings and behaviors of his clients and their maturity level. In his book, he shows how our internal needs direct our behaviors and motives, and how through maturity we can redirect our motives to achieve our goals. Instead of feeling helpless and out of control, we can bring the six hidden motives into consciousness and learn how to act intentionally instead of habitually. Offering practical lessons to manage your motives and fulfill your goals, Dr. Baugh shows us how to act on our good intentions and lead more satisfying lives.
Author: Dan Ariely
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501120050
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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Book Description
Bestselling author Dan Ariely reveals fascinating new insights into motivation—showing that the subject is far more complex than we ever imagined. Every day we work hard to motivate ourselves, the people we live with, the people who work for and do business with us. In this way, much of what we do can be defined as being “motivators.” From the boardroom to the living room, our role as motivators is complex, and the more we try to motivate partners and children, friends and coworkers, the clearer it becomes that the story of motivation is far more intricate and fascinating than we’ve assumed. Payoff investigates the true nature of motivation, our partial blindness to the way it works, and how we can bridge this gap. With studies that range from Intel to a kindergarten classroom, Ariely digs deep to find the root of motivation—how it works and how we can use this knowledge to approach important choices in our own lives. Along the way, he explores intriguing questions such as: Can giving employees bonuses harm productivity? Why is trust so crucial for successful motivation? What are our misconceptions about how to value our work? How does your sense of your mortality impact your motivation?
Author: Robin Hanson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198754620
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 522
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Book Description
Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like? Many think that the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations or "ems." Robin Hanson draws on decades of expertise in economics, physics, and computer science to paint a detailed picture of this next great era in human (and machine) evolution - the age of em.
Author: Gail Gaymer Martin
Publisher: Barbour Publishing
ISBN: 9781593102579
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
Romance is blossoming and lives are on the verge of exciting changes, but four womena are also threatened by suspicion, mystery and danger.
Author: Jason Weeden
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400851963
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 371
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Book Description
Why your political views are more self-serving than you think When it comes to politics, we often perceive our own beliefs as fair and socially beneficial, while seeing opposing views as merely self-serving. But in fact most political views are governed by self-interest, even if we usually don't realize it. Challenging our fiercely held notions about what motivates us politically, this book explores how self-interest divides the public on a host of hot-button issues, from abortion and the legalization of marijuana to same-sex marriage, immigration, affirmative action, and income redistribution. Expanding the notion of interests beyond simple economics, Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban look at how people's interests clash when it comes to their sex lives, social status, family, and friends. Drawing on a wealth of data, they demonstrate how different groups form distinctive bundles of political positions that often stray far from what we typically think of as liberal or conservative. They show how we engage in unconscious rationalization to justify our political positions, portraying our own views as wise, benevolent, and principled while casting our opponents' views as thoughtless and greedy. While many books on politics seek to provide partisans with new ways to feel good about their own side, The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind illuminates the hidden drivers of our politics, even if it's a picture neither side will find flattering.
Author: Avril Danczak
Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners
ISBN: 0850844185
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
Uncertainty is the norm in medical practice, yet often gives rise to distress in clinicians, who fear they will make shameful or guilt inducing errors. This book offers a succinct method to clinicians for classifying uncertainty and finding the right skills to manage different types of uncertainty successfully. Every clinician experiences moments when 'they don't know what to do'. Modern medicine is increasingly complex and training has also become more complicated. The days of 'see one, do one, teach one' are over. Yet, both younger clinicians and senior practitioners describe uncertainty as one of the most challenging and stressful aspects of clinical work. If uncertainty is uncomfortable or threatening to individual practitioners, it also provides complex educational challenges. How can we learn to cope with uncertainty effectively ourselves? How can we teach others to understand and manage uncertainty? In this ground breaking book, the authors propose ways to cut through uncertainty, which is explored as an inevitable (and even desirable) component of clinical practice. A Map of Uncertainty in Medicine (MUM) is used to classify uncertainty and to define the skills that will help find a way though practical difficulties. It is always good to have your MUM with you in a tricky situation!
Author: Erez Yoeli
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541619463
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
Two MIT economists show how game theory—the ultimate theory of rationality—explains irrational behavior We like to think of ourselves as rational. This idea is the foundation for classical economic analysis of human behavior, including the awesome achievements of game theory. But as behavioral economics shows, most behavior doesn’t seem rational at all—which, unfortunately, to cast doubt on game theory’s real-world credibility. In Hidden Games, Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli find a surprising middle ground between the hyperrationality of classical economics and the hyper-irrationality of behavioral economics. They call it hidden games. Reviving game theory, Hoffman and Yoeli use it to explain our most puzzling behavior, from the mechanics of Stockholm syndrome and internalized misogyny to why we help strangers and have a sense of fairness. Fun and powerfully insightful, Hidden Games is an eye-opening argument for using game theory to explain all the irrational things we think, feel, and do.
