Do you believe that you can consistently beat the stock market if you put in the effort?--that some people have extrasensory perception?--that crime and drug abuse in America are on the rise? Many people hold one or more of these beliefs although research shows that they are not true. This enlightening book discusses how to recognize faulty thinking and develop the necessary skills to become a more effective decision maker. Author Thomas Kida identifies a "six-pack of problems" that leads many of us to accept false ideas. The book vividly illustrates these tendencies with numerous eye-opening examples that demonstrate how easily we can be fooled into believing something that isn't true.
Don't Believe Everything You Think
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Don't Believe Everything You Think is essential reading for anyone interested in the psychology of belief and pseudoscientific thinking. It also provides one of the best arguments around for the importance of science literacy..." -- Skeptic
"This is an informative, interesting, and entertaining contribution ...[Kida] goes beyond simply describing our false beliefs to describing the ways in which we acquire them. This book is a valuable resource in the ongoing, difficult process of developing critical thinking." -- Skeptical Inquirer
"Even the most rational-minded readers may be surprised by how many errors in thinking they make without even noticing. Those looking to sharpen their critical thinking and decision-making skills will appreciate this eye-opening book." -- Kirkus Reports
Listed as a Critical Thinking Classic in Skeptic magazine
"This is an informative, interesting, and entertaining contribution ...[Kida] goes beyond simply describing our false beliefs to describing the ways in which we acquire them. This book is a valuable resource in the ongoing, difficult process of developing critical thinking." -- Skeptical Inquirer
"Even the most rational-minded readers may be surprised by how many errors in thinking they make without even noticing. Those looking to sharpen their critical thinking and decision-making skills will appreciate this eye-opening book." -- Kirkus Reports
Listed as a Critical Thinking Classic in Skeptic magazine
About the Author
Thomas Kida (Amherst, MA) is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of many articles on decision-making.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Thomas Kida (Amherst, MA) is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of many articles on decision-making.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
196 of 199 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of my favorite quotes is from Robert Wright's "Moral Animal:" "...human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse." Although this book is not about the morality of our decision-making, it is completely about how we delude ourselves about ourselves, our situations, and others.
Borrowing heavily from Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine, and Skeptic Inquirer, Kida starts off with standard issue debunking of pseudoscience. Soon he zeroes in and concentrates on the faulty ways we reach assessments. These methods worked quite well in our small tribe hunting-gathering days, but nowadays we could do better.
At the risk of losing half the readers of this review, I'll spill the beans. Kida believes in statistics, whereas people evolved to believe in anecdotes. People confidently rely on intuition, then remember the hits and ignore the misses. People seek to confirm what they already believe and gloss over contradictory evidence. People rarely consider the role of chance and coincidence, preferring to give credit to metaphysical causes. People consistently misinterpret events to bolster their deluded self-images. People oversimplify complex situations, tending to shun the gray areas for black or white assessments. Finally, our memories are the pits - remolding and enhancing the original memory more and more as time goes by.
For the above data, Kida has documentation galore, but in the face of volumes of evidence, we continue to do more of the same. After blasting our anecdotal way of proving our theories, Kida uses his own anecdotes, saying "we evolved to love learning from stories." The difference is, the stories he tells survive sophisticated statistical analysis of the data.
There are fascinating stories on every page of this book, with conclusions that will bowl you over if you're not used to this kind of analysis - but it's so true to life. Every day, I hear people justifying their decisions on the basis of someone else's single experience, their own biased conclusion based on erroneous information, a TV show, a hot tip, or other bad data. Every day, I hear stories told that have been enhanced. Confrontations usually don't turn out quite as well as what is later reported to spellbound listeners.
I wish all high schools and colleges would offer a required course on critical thinking - for that group that really would like to take a more scientific approach, but didn't know it existed. Prepare to be blown away - this is a great book!
Borrowing heavily from Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine, and Skeptic Inquirer, Kida starts off with standard issue debunking of pseudoscience. Soon he zeroes in and concentrates on the faulty ways we reach assessments. These methods worked quite well in our small tribe hunting-gathering days, but nowadays we could do better.
At the risk of losing half the readers of this review, I'll spill the beans. Kida believes in statistics, whereas people evolved to believe in anecdotes. People confidently rely on intuition, then remember the hits and ignore the misses. People seek to confirm what they already believe and gloss over contradictory evidence. People rarely consider the role of chance and coincidence, preferring to give credit to metaphysical causes. People consistently misinterpret events to bolster their deluded self-images. People oversimplify complex situations, tending to shun the gray areas for black or white assessments. Finally, our memories are the pits - remolding and enhancing the original memory more and more as time goes by.
For the above data, Kida has documentation galore, but in the face of volumes of evidence, we continue to do more of the same. After blasting our anecdotal way of proving our theories, Kida uses his own anecdotes, saying "we evolved to love learning from stories." The difference is, the stories he tells survive sophisticated statistical analysis of the data.
There are fascinating stories on every page of this book, with conclusions that will bowl you over if you're not used to this kind of analysis - but it's so true to life. Every day, I hear people justifying their decisions on the basis of someone else's single experience, their own biased conclusion based on erroneous information, a TV show, a hot tip, or other bad data. Every day, I hear stories told that have been enhanced. Confrontations usually don't turn out quite as well as what is later reported to spellbound listeners.
I wish all high schools and colleges would offer a required course on critical thinking - for that group that really would like to take a more scientific approach, but didn't know it existed. Prepare to be blown away - this is a great book!
106 of 110 people found the following review helpful
By Kat Bakhu
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
How much better of a country we would have if everyone was required to read and digest this book before getting a high school diploma. We would at least have a population that understands what science, and the scientific method are. The author's explanation of science and pseudo-science, and how they differ, is excellent.
The author covers six common factors that cause us to be mis-guided by our thoughts. Honestly, when I read the list of 6 factors, I had a kind of ho-hum attitude. I didn't see how he could make explicating such obvious things (e.g., we don't always perceive reality accurately) interesting. But he surprised me! His book is very interesting, page after page. His anecdotes and explanations have a way of popping open one's brain cells, allowing one to reflect with much deeper insight on how various factors cause our thinking to send us into wasteful, and even destructive, dead-ends. I particularly enjoyed how well the author demonstrated that if there is no way to show that a hypothesis is false, there is nothing more we can do with it.
I really enjoyed this book. Since we are all dictated by our thoughts, I think that everyone would benefit from reading it!
The author covers six common factors that cause us to be mis-guided by our thoughts. Honestly, when I read the list of 6 factors, I had a kind of ho-hum attitude. I didn't see how he could make explicating such obvious things (e.g., we don't always perceive reality accurately) interesting. But he surprised me! His book is very interesting, page after page. His anecdotes and explanations have a way of popping open one's brain cells, allowing one to reflect with much deeper insight on how various factors cause our thinking to send us into wasteful, and even destructive, dead-ends. I particularly enjoyed how well the author demonstrated that if there is no way to show that a hypothesis is false, there is nothing more we can do with it.
I really enjoyed this book. Since we are all dictated by our thoughts, I think that everyone would benefit from reading it!
46 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm not completely sure what it is that I don't like about the style of writers for management. Maybe it's the insistence on the superficial, chatty, bouncy style of writing. Thomas Kida is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management and adopts this style, which somewhat undermines the very important points he makes. Yes, it's easy to read but I wouldn't mind a little more challenge in a book about the sometimes critical decision errors that we make due to our evolutionary past.
The book is subtitle "the 6 basic mistakes..." - "the six pack of problems" as he calls them, which he lists in sequence. However, the majority of the book is not structured to follow that sequence. It seems to be rather an afterthought (or a good publicity idea).
He readily admits that the book is built on the work of others and it really is. Much of the discussion on weird beliefs and pseudoscientific thinking is a rehash of Shermer and Sagan (and he credits them both). Having said that it does bring together a lot of different information and work by others and does explain how and why we all make these errors in reasoning. For a book on decision making, he goes too much into UFO's, false memories etc. His discussions on probability and why we misjudge is much more interesting and helpful.
Overall, as I've said, it's an easy read and does cover a lot of interesting ground. However, it really doesn't bring much new for anyone who has read generally about these sorts of issues. A pretty good introduction but I just wish writers like this would credit their readers with a little more intelligence and literacy.
The book is subtitle "the 6 basic mistakes..." - "the six pack of problems" as he calls them, which he lists in sequence. However, the majority of the book is not structured to follow that sequence. It seems to be rather an afterthought (or a good publicity idea).
He readily admits that the book is built on the work of others and it really is. Much of the discussion on weird beliefs and pseudoscientific thinking is a rehash of Shermer and Sagan (and he credits them both). Having said that it does bring together a lot of different information and work by others and does explain how and why we all make these errors in reasoning. For a book on decision making, he goes too much into UFO's, false memories etc. His discussions on probability and why we misjudge is much more interesting and helpful.
Overall, as I've said, it's an easy read and does cover a lot of interesting ground. However, it really doesn't bring much new for anyone who has read generally about these sorts of issues. A pretty good introduction but I just wish writers like this would credit their readers with a little more intelligence and literacy.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should read this...
Think you know how the world works? Read this book and have some of your beliefs changed. Whether you're a seasoned skeptic or believe everything you read online, this book will... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bonnie Nilsen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
Very interesting, don't let the "6 Mistakes" subtitle fool you this covers many errors in judgement. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Troy Crayson
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the average.
When I first purchased this book I had in mind that it is about our psychological formation and how to improve our life quality by changing our characters or way of thinking. Read more
Published 9 months ago by TJ
3.0 out of 5 stars
Readable, but many more better alternatives out there
The six packs of problems elaborated by the author are okay: We prefer stories to statistics; We seek to confirm; We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in life;... Read more
Published 11 months ago by ServantofGod
3.0 out of 5 stars
preaching to the choir
If you know anything about this topic, this book is too basic for you. If you believe in ghosts or auras or ESP you will be offended by the way they are dismissed by the author as... Read more
Published 13 months ago by ellen foster
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good Intentions, Not Great Delivery
Two stars might be too harsh for a book that delivers important critical thinking ideas, which this book does, but again and again I find that the book just misses the mark on... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Robert Potter
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book
If you have read Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counter intuition, then I advise you to save time by just reading the epilogue. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ho Kheong Tan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Believe Everything You Read (But Much of it is Okay)!
There is some very good stuff in this book on tools for critical thinking. But there is also a rather worrying example of exactly the kind of sloppy thinking Kida is supposed to be... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sir Furboy
2.0 out of 5 stars
An average book...
This book introduces some elementary psychology terms which are explained but never pinpointed. For instance, chapters are spent on Confirmation Bias (seeking for information to... Read more
Published 23 months ago by CapitanK
2.0 out of 5 stars
A redundant and unimpressive read
I have a few thoughts to share regarding this book, especially considering its higher than average rating. Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. Walls
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
