The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives [Paperback]

Shankar Vedantam (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 31, 2010

The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob.

In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Washington Post science journalist Vedantam theorizes that there's a hidden world in our heads filled with unconscious biases, often small, hidden errors in thinking that manipulate our attitudes and actions without our knowing it. Autonomy is a myth, he says, because knowledge and rational intention are not responsible for our choices. This thesis is not news— since Freud, psychologists have taken the unconscious into account—but Vedanta argues that if we are influenced sometimes, then why not all the time, whether we're launching a romance or a genocide. This is a frightening leap in logic. In anecdotal, journalistic prose, we learn that, through bias, rape victims can misidentify their attacker; people are more honest even with just a subtle indication that they are being watched; polite behavior has to do with the frontotemporal lobes rather than with how one was raised; and that we can be unconsciously racist and sexist. Though drawing on the latest psychological research, Vedantam's conclusions are either trite or unconvincing. (Jan. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

A Washington Post science writer, Vedantam explores the findings of social psychologists about unconscious bias. Recounting people’s stories, he grips attention immediately. Introducing a rape victim whose mistake in identifying her assailant was revealed by DNA evidence that exonerated him, Vedantam establishes his theme of how people get things wrong (in the crime-and-punishment category, he adds death-penalty cases involving possible misidentification) or behave seemingly irrationally. After each individual story, the author repairs to relevant psychological studies. To Vedantam, the studies reveal that subtle biases unconsciously coexist alongside people’s conscious convictions that they are free of prejudice. He cites examples such as Senator George Allen, whose racial remark ended his career; the electorate’s perception of candidate Barack Obama; and the sexual discrimination case of Lilly Ledbetter. Branching into other arenas, such as crowd behavior during crisis situations and the minds of suicide bombers, Vedantam highlights a mental battle of which, he wants his readers to learn, they are largely unaware. This work has strong appeal for the psychology audience. --Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1 edition (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385525222
• ISBN-13: 978-0385525220
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #637,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shankar Vedantam is a science correspondent at National Public Radio, based in Washington DC. He was formerly a national correspondent and columnist for the Washington Post, and a 2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is interested in how insights from psychology and the social sciences can change the way we think about ordinary events in our lives, as well as news events. Learn more about Shankar at www.vedantam.com and follow him on Twitter @HiddenBrain and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HiddenBrain

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 89 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars What you don't know WILL hurt you December 31, 2009

By David Field VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Shankar Vedantam's "The Hidden Brain" is yet another one of those "Let's do a book like Malcolm Gladwell." And luckily, like Sheena Iyengar's "The Art of Choosing," it's another good one. Vedantam's subject is the part of the brain that functions unbeknown to its owner.

I thought this was called "The Subconscious," but that's not the same thing, insofar as we all have our personal subconscious. The Hidden Brain is the unconscious way we all think (or just about all of us), and it's a chilling reminder that what we think is free choice actually isn't.

Vedantam draws on recent psychological research to show some disturbing facts. He spends a whole chapter on investigating racial bias among people who never showed it. He comes to the conclusion that not only are these people biased in spite of their belief that they're not, but we are all biased, and this comes from infancy. People act unbiased against their unconscious beliefs, even in one case, a minority person whose job was to teach other people to be unbiased.

The way the hidden brain does this is so subtle that we're fooled into thinking that it's normal, conscious thinking. How else would the teacher of racial harmony find herself associating bad things with minority names? The inference is that we'll all do this. If you deny this, try the tests at "Project Implicit" at the Harvard University web site.

Another chapter is devoted to gender bias. It is sad to hear the stories of two professors at Stanford University talk about their professional life since a sex change. The woman who changed to a man says, "I am taken more seriously." He was called a better worker than his "sister" (the same person).... The man who changed to a woman is now in the bottom ten percent of salaries and male colleagues shout at him at conferences when they don't agree with his point of view.

Vedantam has a chapter on why some people saved themselves on 9/11, while others stayed at their desks and died. He also has a chapter on a suicide bomber who didn't, in fact, manage to kill himself. To some degree he answers the question of "Why are suicide bombers usually well-educated and have no suicidal tendencies?"

And finally, Vedantam talks of how politicians exploit the hidden brain to get an unfair advantage at elections. You'll be surprised about what he reveals, and how to fight a barely-disguised racial slur with a rebuttal that neutralized the accusation.

All in all, a good book, well-written, and an eye opener. Definitely worth your time. Read more ›

103 of 114 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but Flawed, Book on How the Mind Gets Itself Into Trouble December 29, 2009

By Kevin Currie-Knight TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Books on behavioral science have been in vogue lately. Books like Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior and Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts have intrigued audiences by showing how science can illuminate our often hidden behavioral quirks.

Economists used to say that we are generally rational actors, while psychology used to say that we are primarily motivated by hidden subconscious mechanisms. According to this and other books, the truth is about 50/50. In The Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam focuses his journalistic microscope on the unconscious things running through our minds that often help influence - sometimes dictate - our behavior. He terms these hidden biases "the hidden brain" and argues that even those decisions we make that we "feel" are made rationally and without bias are often not that way at all. Did you know, for instance, that studies have shown that beginning investors are much more likely to invest in companies whose names are readily pronouncable (I'd conjecture this is the same for buyers of wine). What about the idea that many studies tell us that we are much more prone to conformity - doing what others are doing - than we often want to admit? That's the hidden brain at work.

Unlike some books in this how-the-mind-plays-tricks-on-us genre, Vedantam does not shy away from some very serious issues.... One of the most sensitive areas where the hidden brain seems alive and well is in the area of discrimination. Using some interesting studies involving elementary schoolers, Vedantam argues that young children (and adults) are prone to make positive judgments about people who look like them and negative judgments about people who don't (the studies' author tested this in a few ways, including showing children pictures of people with different skin colors, asking them to assign good or bad adjectives to the pictures). Vedantam argues, of course, that adults learn to overcome this with their conscious thoughts, but makes an interesting argument that undoing the unconscious urge to notice and judge based on appearance is as impossible as trying to forget a fact you already know.

Vedantam also explores, using another study, the charged issue of what makes terrorists become terrorists (he suggests that it is not religious fundamentalism but vulnerability to group pressures). There is also a chapter devoted to sociological studies showing how susceptible we are to conformity; when a group around us is doing something - even something we would not normally do otherwise - we often do it. Vedantam not only points out that this is so, but shows us the often devastating consequences of this fact: bystanders might not step in to stop a crime in progress if no one else is, etc.

There is a major criticism I have of this book. There are several points wher I feel that the author develops a sort of myopia - settling on one explanation of an observed behavior when others are possible. The most infuriating, to me, was during the author's explanation of our tendency to conform. When exploring the idea that bystanders often do not step in to stop a crime in progress unless others step in, the author really should have brought in some paragraphs using game theory as a possible explainer: bystanders may be reticent to step in becaus they cannot count on the fact that anyone else will, increasing the risk of threat to their own safety. Instead, the author explains this idea solely as something of an instinct to do what others are doing. Similarly, the author points to a trangendered (male to female) professor's difference in treatment upon becoming a female as evidence of gender discrimination. The fact that the professor's research (as a male) was quite a controversial chlallenging of a tenet of evolutionary theory was not brought up as a possible element of the different treatment. While I am not saying that the ideas not brought up by our author ARE the correct explainers of these events, it is a shame that the author did not bring them up as possibilities which demonstrates, to me, a certain degree of myopia.

These flaws in mind, I can give the book three stars. It is every bit as well written and interesting as the books mentioned in the first paragraph of this review. Those who have not read books in behavioral science should check this one out. Because of its flaws, though, they might also want to check out some others also. Read more ›

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "What was I thinking?" January 3, 2010

By E. Bukowsky HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Shankar Vedantam's "The Hidden Brain," like many other popular works of non-fiction published in the last few years, is an exploration of the unconscious forces that shape our lives. "'Unconscious bias' describes situations in which people's actions are at odds with their intentions." Since we are unaware of these hidden forces that control our behavior, we look for ways to justify our actions logically. Vedantam, who is a science journalist for "The Washington Post," presents controlled experiments and other scientific data to support his thesis.

Here are a few of the thorny questions that he raises: Why do some people decide to become suicide bombers? Why did almost all of the employees on the eighty-eighth floor of the South Tower run out of the World Trade Center on 9/11, while many workers on the eighty-ninth floor stayed behind and perished? When a woman was savagely beaten by her irate boyfriend on a crowded bridge, why did no one come to her aid--not even to call the police on a cell phone? Why do seemingly ordinary individuals fall under the spell of cult leaders? How do racism and sexism originate and why are they so difficult to eradicate? The author blames "the hidden brain," which is "shorthand for a range of influences that manipulate us." Through storytelling, Vedantam illustrates ways in which "unconscious bias" can affect us "in moments of great vulnerability." We employ "heuristics," "mental shortcuts...to carry out the mundane chores of life." Unfortunately, we also tend to apply mental shortcuts when it would be far better to think things through rationally and with greater attention to detail. The hidden brain jumps to conclusions, judging people and events by their appearances and relying on gut feelings rather than reason.... No wonder we, as individuals and as a society, get ourselves into so much trouble.

Although "The Hidden Brain" is thought-provoking and entertaining, some readers may be put off by the idea that human beings are not in control of their actions. If the author is correct in his assertions, then people who commit immoral acts are not necessarily evil. They may be prey to forces outside of their conscious control. This is a revolutionary and politically incorrect concept, for if the hidden brain is so powerful, then no one is guilty of anything. "My hidden brain made me do it," the defendant can claim at his murder trial. This would have been a more beneficial book if Vedantam had offered specific suggestions for channeling our emotions and harnessing our hidden brains constructively. After all, if any miscreant can get away with offering endless excuses for his or her mistakes, then who will be responsible for making our world a more peaceful and livable place? Read more ›