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Will Storr

The Unpersuadables: Adventures wiith the Enemies of Science Hardcover – March 6, 2014

by Will Storr (Author)

63 ratings

4.0 on Goodreads

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Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Abrams Press
Publication date

March 6, 2014
Dimensions

5 x 1 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1468308181
ISBN-13

978-1468308181
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The subtle brilliance of The Unpersuadables is Mr. Storr's style of letting his subjects hang themselves with their own words." —Michael Shermer, The Wall Street Journal

"A tour de force . . . A searching, extraordinarily thoughtful exploration of what it means to believe anything . . . There are entire novels that do less than Storr achieves here in a mere 30 pages . . . Running through all these stories is Storr’s growing uncertainty about certainty." —Laura Miller, Salon

"Drawing upon his well-documented store of inquisitiveness about superstition, eccentricity, and idiosyncratic beliefs, Storr has delivered an accessible look at the brain’s capacity for adopting unconventional ideas . . . Storr’s distillation of current thinking on the subject is a nice primer for the non-expert reader." —The Daily Beast

"Throws new and salutary light on all our conceits and beliefs. Very valuable, and a great read to boot, this is investigative journalism of the highest order." —Independent, Book of the Week

"Storr can open chapters like a stage conjurer, and his prose has an easy, laconic style embracing Jon Ronson’s taste for the fabulously weird and Louis Theroux’s ability to put his subjects at ease. He is a funny and companionable guide . . . [who] confounds expectations." —Guardian

About the Author

Will Storr is an award-winning journalist and novelist whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Sunday Times, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. His books include Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed and The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (Overlook/Abrams Press). His writing courses are among the most in-demand offerings of the Guardian Masterclasses and the Faber Academy. He lives in Kent, England.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Press; 1st edition (March 6, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1468308181
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1468308181
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,331,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #414 in Psychologist Biographies
- #518 in Science Essays & Commentary (Books)

Customer Reviews:
63 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

63 global ratings

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William Whipple III

Explains a Lot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 14, 2014

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Why do people not only adopt their own views of how the world works, but hold these views tenaciously – even in the face of evidence to the contrary – and feel compelled to attack the views of others who disagree?

Will Storr’s theory, admirably supported by interviews with a series of people with very pronounced and often controversial views, is that human beings need a story that places them in the scheme of things and provides assurance that their lives matter.

Thus, to use one of the examples that is given, what happens when a global warming alarmist argues with a global warming skeptic like Lord Christopher Monckton? “It is not a matter of data versus data, it is hero narrative versus hero narrative . . . David versus David . . . a clash of worlds.”

When things get teed up this way, it’s easy to be fooled by our own minds – which will look for evidence to support the chosen position, assure us that we’re right, and dismiss intellectual opponents as misguided or worse.

So should one conclude there is no such thing as “truth,” as human beings exist in their own versions of reality? Or is there some way to break the power of stories and determine how things really work?

The story-breaking method is supposed to be science, which tests theories based on the actual evidence, but it turns out that scientists (such as investigators who set out to debunk any theories that suggest paranormal capabilities, e.g., foresight or extrasensory perception) can be just as fallible and dishonest as the rest of us.

While I’m not about to believe that Hitler knew nothing about the Holocaust or the creation story in the Bible is literally true, the other controversies that are explored seem less susceptible to black and white answers. Maybe brain waves do emanate beyond the physical boundaries of our skulls (some recent research suggests that “mind reading” may be possible after all), homeopathic remedies work in some cases (if only due to the placebo effect), and the global warming debate is about politics rather than science.

If there is hope, Storr seems to be saying, it lies in humility. We may or may not change our minds about things, but we should try to understand why other people hold different views and consider whether they might actually have a point. Amen!

22 people found this helpful

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Stein Weissenberger

In a journalist's entertaining engagement with strange believers, science is a major casualty.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2014

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This is a book about unreliable observers written by an unreliable observer. The author states that “most humans, not least myself, are an incoherent mess of madness and sanity.” While the self-acknowledged irrationality of the investigator of irrationality makes for dramatic situations that the author skillfully weaves into his story, it also leads to confusion in the author’s search for truth. Storr openly confesses his strong sympathy for the eccentrics he interviews, and demonstrates a painful (if often entertaining) difficulty in confronting and conclusively reporting the errors in their positions, whether they be from an advocate of creationism or a proponent of the moral innocence of Adolph Hitler. In contrast to his emotional attraction to the irrationalists he interviews, Storr also exhibits an open hostility to debunkers of irrational beliefs. He strangely includes among his subjects one such person, James Randi, and his interview with him is the only antagonistic one in the book. While Storr is often good at identifying irrational bias and its sources, he is not so good at separating the belief from the believer: Randi’s motivations for his investigations may (or may not) be irrational ones, but they do not determine the truth or falsity of his conclusions.

A corollary of Storr’s personal attraction to strange believers is his failure (or lack of desire) to grasp the essentials of the scientific method. He frequently ignores large bodies of data and well-confirmed theory that demonstrate the falsity of the positions of his irrational subjects. For example, in his discussion of homeopathy he never cites the basic dose-response phenomenon universally observed in medical science, nor does he even hint at the existence of a massive body of high-quality, strong scientific evidence that ESP phenomena do not exist. He refers to “scientific dogma” as if scientific claims against various irrational beliefs are as dogmatic as the irrational claims themselves; thus all claims, in the author’s emotional view, seem pretty much the same at heart, and Randi is as wacky as is the man who claims that he communicates by mental telepathy with his terrier. But most damaging for his analyses, Mr. Storr shows no appreciation for the cumulative effect of the scientific process, how science works through the accretion of the results of hypothesis testing by scientists who examine each other’s work and either confirm or falsify existing claims, leading to a net result that is independent of individual emotion and bias.

On the positive side, Storr’s account of the origin and nature of human irrationality is revealing, clear and convincing. His writing is effective and often highly evocative. And perhaps most usefully, his highly personal and confessedly muddled account of muddled thinkers invites the reader to reflect on the reader's own biases and on the virtues (and difficulty) of achieving modesty and balance in striving after truth.

72 people found this helpful

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