Customer Reviews

SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable

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Bruce M. Hood's SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable is the kind of book that is excellent for those after a thorough overview on superstitious belief or an enjoyable dip into issues and ideas like creationism, essentialism, dualism, intuitive reasoning and its limitations and so forth - and yet not feel as if they're slogging through a academic tome (there's just too much personality for it to be that dry... which may be the only criticism that I could raise if you expected this to be a book of just straight facts and references).

"This book is not meant to make you feel foolish or to encourage you to abandon your supersense [which, as Hood defines it, are naturally occurring irrational beliefs that are a by-product of human development]. Many facets of our behaviour and beliefs have no rational basis. Think of everything that makes us human, and you soon realize that there is much that calls into question our ability to be rational. Love, jealousy, humor and obsession, for instance, are all present in all of us, and even though we know that our beliefs and actions stemming from them can be unbalanced, we would still not want to lose our capacity to experience them. The same can be said for the supersense. So embrace it, learn where it comes from, and understand why it refuses to go away. Oh, and if you are a skeptic reading this book, thanks for getting this far". [page 36].

That last part is appears to be more addressed to readers who suit what Dr Caroline Watt (co-author of 'An Introduction to Parapsychology') discussed in a Skeptic Zone interview as a 'counter-advocate' to what could possibly be paranormal or supernatural events. The open-mindedness that skeptics pride themselves upon is most definitely being called upon in this book. If one does take on the book's thesis that this is a 'natural consequence' that results in 'shared sacred values' that may not draw upon rational behaviour - then one has to recognise that the counter-advocate stance needs to be abandoned. This makes it a book that will most definitely make the hard-core 'atheist equals skepticism' sorts blanch - but hopefully not deter them from getting the cultural and social education that Hood proffers (and one I personally think is much needed in terms of opening up dialogue and common ground regarding goals like human rights and consumer protection, et al).

Whilst keen readers (and researchers) on the topic of belief in the supernatural may have noticed that Robert L Park's 'Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science' was printed late last year, I would say Hood's SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable delves into current practices with an eager attitude and is plainly more extensive for essentially a similar price (nearly a hundred pages more in Supersense?). Maybe it's my judgment of the construction of a UK as opposed to a US text (although references within Supersense draw on international examples too), but as an Australian, I was more 'at ease' with Hood's overall tone and approach to anomalistic psychology. As researcher who is familiar with the likes of Stuart A. Vyse's seminal work 'Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition' and the perennially popular text by Michael Shermer, 'Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time', I would say that this is really more akin to Vyse's work with a straight-forward, confident approach that reminded me of Dr Ben Goldacre's extremely accessible Bad Science.

Although Park's 'Superstition', Shermer's 'Weird Things' and Hood's 'Supersense' all feature personal narrative flavoring the scientific references, 'Supersense' draws upon more recent news items and pop-culture references, along with the required historical background to 'why we believe as we do'. That's something Shermer, despite the re-release of 'Weird Things', hasn't really incorporated to a detailed extent. 'Supersense' also features a thorough index and footnotes that serve more than well enough for checking the source of quotes and examples. I should also point out that the breakdown of chapters, structured with subheadings and occasional photos (the chirpy-looking author standing outside a 'Bric-a-Brac' store, used to illustrate a rather poignant tale about the lure of 'collectibles') creates a lively mixture of academic prose and anecdotal examples. I wish more books drew upon these strengths when structuring a text on what can be a rather heavy psychology investigation.

It's a book that nods to the likes of Dr Richard Wiseman's Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things and yet has a far more philosophical message about acknowledging the pervasive but not necessarily 'requires windmill-tilting' superstitious beliefs prevalent across cultures, ages and creeds. Highly recommended if you're sick of trying to figure out how to politely settle some of the more garrulous distractions of the fundamentalist 'counter-advocate' sort.

"I can believe anything provided it is incredible." - Oscar Wilde

I have always been fascinated by the things that people believe especially when faced with rational explanations that make belief an exercise in the suspension of disbelief. When I am feeling particularly smarmy about the fact that I am a skeptical and rational creature who thinks critically, I remind myself that as I sit down to write anything of import, I always pull out my *lucky* fountain pen.

I ordered this book long before it was available because I enjoyed reading Bruce Hood's blog and was thrilled when it was finally published. The book was well worth the wait - it is a great read that makes a serious subject very approachable.

There is all manner of research showing how we believe including some fairly interesting research by NIMH, and while some would argue that learning the mechanism is the first step towards abolishing belief, I think that there is something to be said for having our lucky pens.

Bruce's book presents us with the whys, wherefores and need for beliefs that would on the surface appear to contradict the serious need for critical thinking.

I didn't agree with everything... but I am going to give it a place of honor on my favorite bookshelf between "Breaking the Spell" and "Why People Believe Weird Things".

SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable

I read a lot of popular evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and related books by people like Steven Pinker, Geoffrey Miller, Matt Ridley, Bryan Sykes, Jared Diamond and Richard Dawkins. If you're into these authors too, then this book is for you.

Hood's overview of the research behind our natural inclination towards superstition is well-written and easy to digest. He starts by pointing out that even the most intellectual among us has to contend with irrational fears and mystical beliefs -- the example being how most of his students will refuse to wear a sweater he tells them was once worn by a serial killer.

What I really liked about this book was Hood's position that we will never remove superstition from our lives, that it's just as much of a hard-wired instinct as language or pattern recognition. He takes a much more moderate stand on religion that Dawkins, who believes raising a kid with supernatural beliefs is intellectually abusive. Instead, Hood is one of those scientists who accepts that the best we can do is to better understand our irrational impulses and thereby improve the way we deal with them.

If you're a human nature geek like me, then put this book on your summer reading list. It's conversational and witty, with just enough new information to make it all worthwhile.

Hood is also a pretty accessible guy. I made a comment on his blog at http://brucemhood.wordpress.com/ , and he got right back to me.

So here's your review, Bruce, as promised!

This is one of a large number of books using recent psychological findings to explain persistent but wrong beliefs (often called by pejorative terms like "superstition").
What sets this one apart, beside the fact that it is delightfully written and thoroughly fun to read, is that it is relatively fair and nondismissive, and that it incorporates the author's important work on children. He goes into really interesting detail on children's knowledge of the world. They (we) are born with an astonishing amount of cognitive equipment, including extreme sensitivity to faces, sounds, and motions--the "tabula rasa" idea is long dead. They (we) then develop along lines predictable from genetically guided tendencies: all but the most severely damaged children learn language with incredible ease; all learn to recognize animals and other moving things with almost equal ease; all make pretty much the same oversimplifying mistakes in inferring how the world works.
Often, such mis-inference carries over into adulthood. The most important mis-inferences we make are essentializing--believing that, for instance, a murderer's sweater has evil essence in it--and assuming active, wilful agency in all events unless proven otherwise. The latter causes most belief in supernatural beings (spirits, gods, etc.).
Hood does not escape the problems of this general class of literature. First, though he pays some attention to the social and cultural side, he still explains belief as if it were basically an individual thing caused by natural individual mistakes. This doesn't even begin to account for socially constructed belief systems, like religion or astrology. Second, he has trouble bounding the set. Why do these books always drag in ghosts and telepathy but never bring in racism, a far more dangerous and ridiculous belief? These books also tend to confuse beliefs that are truly against all reasonable common sense, like the beliefs about the murderer's sweater, with beliefs that are on the face of them very reasonable. Consider astrology: we know the sun and the moon influence life here on earth, so ancient people plausibly reasoned that the stars must have smaller and subtler but equally real effects. It took a lot of proving to show that this sensible conclusion was wrong. From another angle, consider telepathy: most people can easily, accurately, and quite unconsciously infer others' feelings and attitudes from just talking to them for a few minutes. Before the discovery of mirror cells and other specialized social-inference systems in the brain, this was a genuinely "supernatural" ability--there was simply no known explanation for it. Oddly, Hood does not talk about mirror cells in his discussion of telepathy. Almost everyone knows that genuine mind-reading doesn't happen (think how embarrassing it would be for us males--we'd get slapped a lot), but everyone also knows about social intuition, and no one could explain it till very recently.
This is a fine book and deserves to be read, but I hope the next writers in this genre look seriously at how some wrong beliefs get so widely established and accepted, and even taken as religious truth, while others remain "mere superstition" and still others die out totally.

I live with a black cat and pass a battlefield, a haunted cemetery, a haunted hotel, and two haunted houses on my way to and from work without a second thought, so I like to think that I am not superstitious... but I also haven't put on a favorite blouse since I wore it when I had a bad car accident last year. It isn't that I think the blouse is bad luck but... well, no need to take chances... and besides, I can blame it all on my "supersense." "Supersense" is the tendency to "believe the unbelievable," or scientifically unprovable. Dr. Hood shows how our brains and minds are innately designed for such beliefs and that they begin very early in life. I have read, and fallen asleep reading, many cognitive science books, but I didn't fall asleep reading this one. In fact, I read this one all in one day because it is a real page-turner full of interesting insights as well as stories of bizarre and entertaining behavior. I was also fascinated by the information about how thinking in children develops and I hope that perhaps one day Dr. Hood will devote an entire book to his and others' findings on this topic. Dr. Hood finishes the book by explaining that while "supersense" may not be rational, it is, in some ways, necessary for creating the sacred values and connections that bind people into functioning communities and societies. So, whether you are interested in cognitive science, the paranormal, child development, weird and wild human behavior, or religion and spirituality, "Supersense" is highly recommended.

As a clinical psychologist, I am always amazed when an author can turn me on to scientific research that I am already familiar with. Hood pulls no punches with this book in his attempt to explain why human beings have a deeply ingrained tendency to develop supernatural beliefs. He weaves together childhood development, brain science, and ideas about human beings as cultural animals to explain why we cling to supernatural beliefs even when we know they aren't true.

There is much to like about this book. Hood has a gift for bringing scientific studies to life and sharing intriguing real-world examples to make his point. See "the haunted scrotum" in Chapter 5, the shocking autopsy of a top Olympic medal winning athlete from the 1930's in Chapter 6, and so on. He also does an impressive job of being relatively neutral about religion and other supernatural beliefs. By showing that it is part of human nature, he doesn't rally against religion rather he explains the value of being skeptical of the little 3-pound blob that often does weird things to try to make sense of the world.

My favorite parts of the book relate to how our beliefs change as a result of ingraining cultural beliefs and trying to satisfy our need to belong. The average person actually becomes more superstitious as they get older when you would think they become more rational.

On another note, I appreciate the fact that Hood is willing to use examples that cover the entire spectrum from the benevolent and beautiful to revolting horrors. Many scientists would shy away from some of his examples. To me, they were useful, memorable, and downright interesting.

I could never understand why normal, educated folks like myself could possibly believe in such strange things like ghosts, good luck charms, ESP, an afterlife, and a host of other supernatural events. For the first time EVER, I finally found someone who could explain such things in a reasonable, well thought out and at times, humorous way. And it is the most obvious of reasons, one that is right under our noses (literally!), a look at the world through a child's eyes and mind.
I enjoyed the book enough that I am doing a second read immediately after I just finished it. I cannot remember doing THAT in a long, long time!
If nothing else, it is a great conversational topic. My college going son and I spent a enjoyable trip back to school going through some of the topics where neither of us remember the driving part at all.

I picked up "Supersense" to add to my library of books on irrational beliefs, how the mind works and consciousness. Roughly the first half of the book is spent going over material that will be familiar to anyone who's already acquainted with these topics and has read the requisite authors - Kahneman and Tversky, Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Lewis Wolpert, Dan Ariely, Marco Iacoboni, Richard Dawkins to name a few. What was new, and most enjoyable, to me was the look at repugnance and disgust and why certain groups of people find particular things abhorrent and others don't. However this same aspect of the book also seems to contradict the authors conclusion which is that we develop this "super sense" as a means of putting the world into some kind of order and, given that, it's unlikely we'll ever rid ourselves of it, since it's key to our functioning as social animals.

It seems to me that the history of modern civilization could be described as a slow but steady whittling away of supernatural beliefs. e.g. we no longer believe in MOST of the gods that at one point enjoyed our worship. We no longer believe in witchcraft, the evil eye, astrology, alchemy and people claiming to be psychics. We no longer flinch at the thought of women voting, pursuing professional careers or public office. We no longer find it abhorrent for couples of different races to marry and have children. We appear to be on a trajectory where acceptance of homosexuals will eventually become the norm. All of these things were at one time considered repugnant and that repugnance could be traced to what the author posits is our "super sense". But it begs the question that if we were able to overcome these particular irrational symptoms of our "super sense" then why shouldn't we expect to overcome other things we are repulsed by for seemingly no good reason. e.g. stem cell research, human genetic engineering and GMOs.

I struggled mildly with whether to rate this two or three stars (also, full disclosure, this is my first Amazon review). I could argue for two stars because I was disappointed that much of the material was not new. However to someone who doesn't have the background this is a very good survey of the existing literature on cognitive science as it relates to how we behave as social creatures. So, if you're interested in the topic and haven't read much or any of the authors listed above then it's worth picking up.

Everyone believes in something. In a popular story attributed to comedian W.C. Fields, who was an outspoken atheist, a friend visited him on Fields' death bed and found him reading the Bible. When asked what on earth he was doing, Fields reportedly replied, "Insurance!" Similarly, readers can learn in Bruce M. Hood's "Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable" that it is not only religious thoughts that we hold dear but also ideas such as superstitions and even sentimentality. These are the traits that even skeptic Hood concedes holds our society together as he argues for the sacredness of the supernatural.

This book navigates us through the human brain, touching upon philosophy, ethics, neuroscience and then some. Written in a pleasant style with multiple references to popular culture, only one chapter explained the dry neuroscience of it all which, oddly, was indeed my favorite chapter. Is dopamine the "gullibility neurotransmitter?" Maybe. Pick up "Supersense" and rest assured that it's perfectly logical to be irrational.

... for our openness to supernatural beliefs of all kinds, religious "psychic", or simply superstitious. Prof Hood develops his argument with repeated appeals to common experience and to experimental data.

The author, a professor of developmental psychology, relates these to the way our minds work, just as optical illusions are related to the way our visual cortex works. For example, from early in life, we regard physical objects as being moved by mental forces. That is the way we inevitably continue to feel about our own bodies, even if philosophically we know that this is absurd. Hence the supernatural belief that events must have a "why" as well as a "how".

This is only one of several important ideas developed here, but I won't go into more detail for fear of spoiling your pleasure in reading this book. Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever is not going to be changed by reading this book, nor is that the intention, but what will be changed is your degree of insight into your own mind and the minds of others.