59 Seconds [Paperback]

Richard Wiseman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 023074429X
• ISBN-13: 978-0230744295
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Wiseman is Britain's only professor for the Public Understanding of Psychology and has an international reputation for his research into unusual areas including deception, luck, humour and the paranormal. He is the psychologist most frequently quoted by the British media and his research has been featured on over 150 television programmes in the UK. He is regularly heard on Radio 4 and feature articles about his work have appeared prominently throughout the national press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

228 of 233 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Please drink a cup of coffee before reading this review, July 11, 2009

By 

Julia Flyte - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 59 Seconds (Paperback)

This is an easy and enjoyable book to read - the kind that you can dip in and out of, picking up interesting tips along the way. For each topic, Wiseman discusses a number of research experiments (both his own and ones done by others) and then gives a number of concrete suggestions on how you can quickly implement these findings (although 59 seconds is often a stretch). And why the title of this review? Because one of the things I learned from reading this book was the fact that if you've just had a caffeinated drink, you are far more likely to be swayed by someone else's opinion!

The book is based on the premise that quick techniques can sometimes be surprisingly effective at helping us to change and explains (based on research studies) which ones work and which don't. Some examples that I found interesting were:
- a simple five day writing exercise that can lift your mood for several weeks
- how to create the perfect plan to achieve almost any goal
- how spending money on experiences is a far more effective way to make yourself happy than spending it on things
- how punching a pillow to relieve anger actually increases your anger, while sitting quietly and thinking about how you benefited from the experience has the opposite effect
- conversational techniques that can build instant rapport on a first date
- exercises to stimulate the unconscious mind that lead to better decision making
- simple tests to assess your child's emotional intelligence.

Like Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives, the book also has lots of facts that seem to have been included just because they're interesting. So we learn that people with bumper stickers are more aggressive drivers, that having a photo of a baby in your wallet significantly increases the chance of it being returned if you lose it, that your initials can influence your life expectancy and that adding plants to an office increases the number of creative ideas that employees will have.

The chapter list gives a good indication of the subjects covered in the book:
1. Happiness
2. Persuasion
3. Motivation
4. Creativity
5. Attraction
6. Stress
7. Relationships
8. Decision Making
9. Parenting
10. Personality

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SO helpful, SO useful -- I am floored!, January 14, 2010

By 

Fox in a Box (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (Borzoi Books) (Hardcover)

Depressed? Overweight? Angry? Failed every which way but loose? No accident, my friend, but help is here. Pour a cup of tea, grab a comforter and thank god.

I have some grounding in the study of psychology and much of its clinical research over the past 20 years, and know that Wiseman knows whereof he speaks. In addition to my academic study, I've so many books on these subjects that at a garage sale starring my self-help library, someone asked me if I was a psychiatrist. No, I said, I'm just nuts.

Yes, it's true that Wiseman offers jokey (and political) asides that might annoy some readers, but that is nothing compared to the enormously helpful distillation of psychological research offered here and the ease of application to one's own life.

The book is well organized, well written and lucid. It explains in lay terms why common and familiar "self-help" directives simply don't work, have never worked and are really no more than endlessly reiterated (and successfully marketed)myths. He then prescribes remedies that not only work fast, but have been proven by scientific study to provoke lasting change. Some are counterintuitive, some make immediate sense, all are easier than I had any right to expect.

I was quite surprised, not only by how quickly Wiseman's recommendations work, but by the holding power of the changes that ensue. Good work, good book, badly needed and it's about time.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful real science, March 25, 2010

By 

John - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (Borzoi Books) (Hardcover)

I have already used this book to rid myself of a very stubborn and bad habbit. It works ! If you follow the techniques in the section called "Motivation", you will too. I particularly like the Gabriele Oettingen technique called "double-think", which is to think of an optimal future for yourself in some are (eating less, etc.) and then picturing where you are now, but then holding both images in your mind. Then you come up with two reasons you would be better if you were in your "optimal" place, and two things holding you back. I found this technique particularly powerful in ridding me of a habit. It reminds me of the "Stockdale technique", which was developed by Vietnam POWs in Vietnam. Stockdale noticed that the POWs who were the first to succumb to despair were those too optimistic, and who only pictured their homecoming. Those who pictured coming home, but also pictured where they currently were and fully realized how tough it would be were far more resilient and were able to make it out at far higher rates. So, hopeful thinking can not only be ineffective, it can be counterproductive.