What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite [Paperback]

David DiSalvo (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 22, 2011

Foreword by Wray Herbert
Author of On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hardwired Habits
Former editor in chief of Psychology Today
Regular contributor to Science, Scientific American, and Science News

Why do we routinely choose options that don't meet our short-term needs and undermine our long-term goals? Why do we willingly expose ourselves to temptations that undercut our hard-fought progress to overcome addictions? Why are we prone to assigning meaning to statistically common coincidences? Why do we insist we're right even when evidence contradicts us?

In What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, science writer David DiSalvo 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 make getting out of our own way extremely difficult. DiSalvo's search includes forays into evolutionary and social psychology, cognitive science, neurology, and even marketing and economics—as well as interviews with 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, DiSalvo 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 lively presentation of the latest in cognitive science convincingly debunks what DiSalvo calls 'self-help snake oil.'" --Publisher's Weekly

"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

"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 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

"Reading What Makes Your Brain Happy is like eating intellectual dim sum at your favorite Chinese restaurant. Each morsel is tasty and you will keep coming back for more." --Bruce Hood, PhD, author of Super Sense: Why We Believe the Unbelievable and director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre

"The chapters in this book are crystal-clear and multifaceted, and each transmits a ray of insight about how we think. It's jewelry for the mindful mind." --Phillip Alcabes, PhD, author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Plague to the Avian Flu

"Packed full of scientific insights with practical applications to everyday life—a thought-provoking and entertaining page-turner." --Gary Small, MD, UCLA professor of psychiatry and author of The Memory Bible, iBrain, and The Other Side of the Couch: A Psychiatrist Solves His Most Unusual Cases

"David 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 Gentleman Really Prefer Blondes? Bodies, Brains, and Behavior—The Science Behind Love, Sex & Attraction

"It's hard to put down this smart, readable discussion of the latest brain science from science writer David DiSalvo. As always, DiSalvo deftly offers both expert and lay readers news we can use, in context and with style. Read on!" --Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age

"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 is a genial and enthusiastic guide who makes emerging research in neuroscience, social psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral economics accessible, and even entertaining. But this book is not specifically about research, nor is it really about brains and minds. What it is about is you and me and how science can help with the messy business of trying to live a meaningful, good life. A delightfully illuminating read." --Todd Essig, PhD, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, William Alanson White Institute

"This book is 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

About the Author

David DiSalvo is a science, technology and culture writer for Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today, Mental Floss, Forbes and other publications, and the writer behind the well-regarded science blogs Neuronarrative (at PsychologyToday.com) and Neuropsyched (at Forbes.com). He has appeared on CNN's Headline News and the NBC Nightly News, written for the Wall Street Journal, and his work has been referenced in major publications worldwide. He has also served as a consulting research analyst and communications specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several public and private organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (November 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616144831
• ISBN-13: 978-1616144838
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #85 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Neuropsychology

More About the Author

David DiSalvo is a science writer and public education specialist who writes about the intersection of science, technology and culture. His work has appeared in Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Mental Floss, Salon, Esquire and other publications, and he is the writer behind the widely read science and technology blogs, Neuropsyched, Neuronarrative and The Daily Brain. He is frequently interviewed about science and technology topics, including appearances on NBC Nightly News and CNN Headline News. He has served as a consulting research analyst and communications specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several public and private organizations in the U.S. and abroad. His first non-fiction book, What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, has been translated into 7 languages and is available worldwide. His second book, "The Brain in Your Kitchen", is now available for Kindle. His third book, "Brain Changer" will be released in November, 2013.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 163 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent cognitive psych sampler. May 17, 2012

By MonsoonKing

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is another book in the increasingly popular genre of pop cognitive psychology. These books usually take the following approach:
1) Author reads tons of studies revealing brain quirks, failures, and surprising behavior.
2) Author attempts to tie some of these into related themes (Think Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink").
3) Author discusses the "lessons learned" from these studies.
"What Makes Your Brain Happy" is no exception. The title refers to the brains tendency to fall into common, comfortable behavior patterns, occasionally to our detriment. Subjects like confirmation bias, framing, and mental heuristics and all discussed via various studies, anecdotes, and thought experiments. He also wades into territory common to many books on the subject of happiness including habituation, buyer's remorse, narcissism, and loneliness. To fans of cognitive psych and behavioral economics, most of this material will be familiar. To the uninitiated, this is a decent introduction.

DiSalvo positions this book as a scientific alternative to the self-help genre which he regards as frequently built on false promises. He takes a couple jabs at the self-help industry early on (you're not suddenly seeing more Chanel handbags because the cosmos are responding to your "dream board" but rather because you've keyed yourself into looking for them) but this book is really about examining studies and trying to wring out some lessons that we can apply to our own life.

Does he succeed? Yes and no. At the end of the book he distills the material covered into 50 "lessons" to apply to our own lives. They range from reasonable and actionable (let others know about your goals to enhance motivation, make goals tangible and measurable) to the vague and difficult to implement (don't always trust common sense, know when to engage heuristic override) to the simply observational (it's difficult to tell what we'd do in an emotionally charged and time constrained situation). DiSalvo acknowledges that many brain failures are due to "bad wiring" which makes altering our behavior notoriously difficult. He broadly promotes metacognition, that is, thinking about our own thinking, as a means of identifying bias and irrational behavior. I definitely agree and think reading books of this type helps.

My main complaint is that the book is extremely broad and scattershot. It starts off as a nice breezy read, full of interesting, illustrative anecdotes, but it starts to drag toward the middle, with study after study and no common thread. It started to feel like reading 100 back to back magazine articles rather than a cohesive whole. The lessons may be valid, but 50 is so overwhelming that none of them are really "driven home". After closing this book I didn't feel immediately compelled to implement any changes in my life or way of thinking (and not for lack of openness).

I debated as to whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's not a bad book, but I didn't think it did anything well enough to warrant a higher rating, especially when there are so many other good books like Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow" out there.

252 of 267 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best on the Topic November 24, 2011

By Book Fanatic TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I've read many books on the topic of cognitive bias and this rates one of the best for the general reader. I'm endlessly fascinated by the topic and can't seem to stop reading these books even though there isn't a lot new in most of them. They all keep saying the same thing and I'm getting a little tired of it.

So I was quite surprised when this one seemed a little different. It does an excellent job at explaining the issues and it is one of the few books in this area that devotes a reasonable amount of space to what you can actually do to avoid the problems. The author devotes one whole chapter at the end to 50 techniques to help you avoid your brain faults and he scatters other advice through most of the rest of the book.

The book is organized well, it is very clear in its explanation, and it reads easily and quickly. It kept my attention throughout. There is an excellent resources section at the end of the book which describes a large number of related books and blogs. That resource list alone is probably worth the price of the book.

To top it off this book has Amazon's "Look Inside!" feature that let's you preview before you buy. Well done and highly recommended.

108 of 112 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Di Salvo's Brain Book--Good Mental Workout February 21, 2012

By Jimmy

Format:Paperback

Why should you buy this book? If you are stubborn it will help explain why you are stubborn. It also provides a bulletproof excuse for being stubborn. "It's not me that's stubborn it's my brain that's stubborn." Di Salvo reminds us brain processes are not only functional allies in the daily survival campaign but also stealthy saboteurs.

Whether we hate statistics or not, Di Salvo elaborates, our brains lavish in probability by frantically calculating likely outcomes, often using inappropriate formulas and incomplete data, all in the name of efficiency to quickly to bask in reduced uncertainty. Job done; brain is happy. Oops, what if that rascal questing for speedy resolution and decisional-euphoria missed some important stuff? Well, then maybe you'll die, or worse yet, later discover your spouse really does hate your best friend coming over every Thursday night.

Structurally, as other reviewers note, the book falls prey to the strong start, loosely organized middle, strong finish pattern. This is common in non-fiction books written by excellent essayists and often traceable to editor-intervention like--we need 80 more pages! Can you go over your notes? The middle section isn't totally useless because a variety of other relevant topics such as habituation, the illusion of control, and memory games are covered. Plus there's a solid reference section (Notes) and functional index, not to mention two, yep two, added chapters ("Special Sections"). One contains additional readings, the other summaries of the author's fave research studies. OK, some of it really is padding but at least its relevant padding.

Some effort is made to position the book in a niche distant from other likely self-help-shelf neighbors. But, you can help yourself by reading this book. Actionable suggestions for combating the brain's less desirable operational modes are presented. Di Salvo just refers to these tips as "takeaways," "knowledge clues," or "implications." Fifty such summary prescriptions are filled in the "Mind the Gap" chapter. The book's real differentiating dimension is the focus on underlying science.

Much of the foundation material is simply not that new but recent research is exceptionally well summarized and effectively made palatable. Roots of the main premise, the brain likes consistency and fights bloody hard to achieve it, are grounded in decades-old research sporting umbrella terms such as "cognitive consistency." It takes a good writer to demystify such material and Di Salvo is a good researcher/writer and an apt storyteller too, so it's unlikely you'll be bored.

Do you really want to plow through several 700-page graduate-level textbooks and back issues of twenty different academic journals to gain a foothold on this material? I agree with your brain on that score, the likely answer is...No. So, suffer the relatively minor shortcomings and buy this book. If, after reading it, you quickly conclude you've wasted $12 then blame your brain. Ironically, that might make it happy. Just don't go entropic! As Di Salvo summarizes in the last chapter, "Living is, after all, is messy business, and more often than not, it is ambiguity rather than clarity filling our mind-space."