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The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

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SKU 9780190495992 Categories ,
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This book exposes our unconscious selfish motives, those we're reluctant to discuss or even think about. These motives drive our body language, laughter, and conversation, as well as venerated institutions like art, school, charity, medicine, politics, and religion. You'll nev...

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Description

Product ID:9780190495992
Product Form:Hardback
Country of Manufacture:US
Title:The Elephant in the Brain
Subtitle:Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
Authors:Author: Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson
Page Count:416
Subjects:Cultural studies, Cultural studies, Psychological theory, systems, schools and viewpoints, Psychology of gender, Psychology: emotions, Cognition and cognitive psychology, Psychology: states of consciousness, Popular psychology, Psychological theory & schools of thought, Psychology of gender, Psychology: emotions, Cognition & cognitive psychology, Conscious & unconscious, Popular psychology
Description:Select Guide Rating
This book exposes our unconscious selfish motives, those we're reluctant to discuss or even think about. These motives drive our body language, laughter, and conversation, as well as venerated institutions like art, school, charity, medicine, politics, and religion. You'll never see yourself, or the world, the same again.
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don''t like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen?Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won''t see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.
Imprint Name:Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Name:Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:GB
Publishing Date:2018-02-08