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The Elephant in the Brain
- Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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I know my own mind. I am able to assess others in a fair and accurate way. These self-perceptions are challenged by leading psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald as they explore the hidden biases we all carry from a lifetime of exposure to cultural attitudes about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality. Blindspot is the authors’ metaphor for the portion of the mind that houses hidden biases.
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Difficult to interpret.
- By Ryan Arnold on 12-21-15
By: Mahzarin R. Banaji, and others
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Friend and Foe
- When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both
- By: Adam D. Galinsky, Maurice E. Schweitzer
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Friend and Foe, researchers Galinsky and Schweitzer explain why this debate misses the mark. Rather than being hardwired to compete or cooperate, humans have evolved to do both. It is only by learning how to strike the right balance between these two forces that we can improve our long-term relationships and get more of what we want.
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Unexpected
- By Garron Rose on 01-05-16
By: Adam D. Galinsky, and others
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The Rational Animal
- How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think
- By: Douglas T. Kenrick, Vladas Griskevicius
- Narrated by: Tim Andres Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard - only to give their hard-earned money away? When it comes to making decisions, the classic view is that humans are eminently rational. But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right - or is there another possibility?
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Good book
- By Justin on 02-17-17
By: Douglas T. Kenrick, and others
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Focus
- Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence
- By: Heidi Grant Halvorson Ph.D., E. Tory Higgins PhD
- Narrated by: Karen Saltus
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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We all want to experience pleasure and avoid pain. But there are really two kinds of pleasure and pain that motivate everything we do. If you are promotion-focused, you want to advance and avoid missed opportunities. If you are prevention-focused, you want to minimize losses and keep things working. And as Tory Higgins has found in his groundbreaking research, if you understand how people focus, you have the power to motivate yourself and everyone around you.
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Pain / Pleasure
- By Serena K. on 02-13-17
By: Heidi Grant Halvorson Ph.D., and others
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Ha!
- The Science of When We Laugh and Why
- By: Scott Weems
- Narrated by: Kalen Allmandinger
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Humor, like pornography, is famously difficult to define. We know it when we see it, but is there a way to figure out what we really find funnyand why? In this fascinating investigation into the science of humor and laughter, cognitive neuroscientist Scott Weems uncovers what’s happening in our heads when we giggle, guffaw, or double over with laughter. While we typically think of humor in terms of jokes or comic timing, in Ha! Weems proposes a provocative new model.
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Good place to start in the study of humor
- By Amazon Customer on 05-26-17
By: Scott Weems
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The Compassionate Achiever
- How Helping Others Fuels Success
- By: Christopher L. Kukk
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades we've been told the key to prosperity is to look out for number one. But recent science shows that to achieve durable success, we need to be more than just achievers; we need to be compassionate achievers. New research in biology, neuroscience, and economics has found that compassion - recognizing a problem or caring about another's pain and making a commitment to help - not only improves others' lives; it can transform our own.
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Me me me
- By Someone or not? on 04-04-20
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The Upside of Your Dark Side
- Why Being Your Whole Self - Not Just Your "Good" Self - Drives Success and Fulfillment
- By: Todd Kashdan, Robert Biswas-Diener
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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In The Upside of Your Dark Side, two pioneering researchers in the field of psychology show that while mindfulness, kindness, and positivity can take us far, they cannot take us all the way. Sometimes, they can even hold us back. Emotions like anger, anxiety, or doubt might be uncomfortable, but it turns out that they are also incredibly useful.
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Boring and learned nothing
- By Taryn on 07-25-16
By: Todd Kashdan, and others
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The Upside of Irrationality
- The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
- By: Dan Ariely
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job.
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Not as good as the first
- By Stephen on 06-20-10
By: Dan Ariely
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Mindware
- Tools for Smart Thinking
- By: Richard E. Nisbett
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Many scientific and philosophical ideas are so powerful that they can be applied to our lives at home, work, and school to help us think smarter and more effectively about our behavior and the world around us. Surprisingly, many of these ideas remain unknown to most of us. In Mindware, the world-renowned psychologist Richard Nisbett presents these ideas in clear and accessible detail, offering a tool kit for better thinking and wiser decisions.
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Sound scientific advice on how to live your life
- By Neuron on 08-26-15
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Breaking the Spell
- Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.
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Great Reader Actually Enhances A Great Book!
- By Don Caliente on 07-14-14
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Before You Know It
- The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do
- By: John Bargh PhD
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than three decades, Dr. John Bargh has been responsible for the revolutionary research into the unconscious mind, research that informed best sellers like Blink and Thinking Fast and Slow. Now, in what Dr. John Gottman said "will be the most important and exciting book in psychology that has been written in the past 20 years", Dr. Bargh takes us on an entertaining and enlightening tour of the forces that affect everyday behavior while transforming our understanding of ourselves in profound ways.
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Political jab
- By Brad on 10-20-17
By: John Bargh PhD
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The Man Who Lied to his Laptop
- What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships
- By: Clifford Nass, Corina Yen
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Clifford Nass has developed a powerful theory: Our brains can’t fundamentally distinguish between interacting with people and interacting with devices. Nass’s discoveries push the boundaries of both psychology and technology and provide nothing less than a new blueprint for successful human relationships.
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Human/Technology Interface
- By Roy on 10-19-10
By: Clifford Nass, and others
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An overly long Nudge in the right direction
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Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis, Asperger's: All of these syndromes have one thing in common---lack of empathy. In some cases, this absence can be dangerous, but in others it can simply mean a different way of seeing the world. In The Science of Evil, Simon Baron-Cohen, an award-winning British researcher who has investigated psychology and autism for decades, develops a new brain-based theory of human cruelty.
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Amazing
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Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong....
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When I gave up on books that supposedly would...
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The Denial of Death
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work, The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie: man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than 30 years after its writing.
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Not for the closed-minded
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The Lonely Century
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Loneliness has become the defining condition of the 21st century. It is damaging our health, our wealth, and our happiness and even threatening our democracy. Never has it been more pervasive or more widespread, but never has there been more that we can do about it.
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Great book that doesn't demonize technology
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What listeners say about The Elephant in the Brain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Myles
- 02-22-23
Great book
Helped me understand a little bit more about social norms and the psychology of why we still follow them.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tommy
- 08-30-19
Entertaining and thought provoking
The social implications outlined are well written and laid out to be easy to underatand and entertaining to think about
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- paul sheppard
- 04-08-20
Very interesting.
I asked myself lots of questions while listening to this book about my own motivations. Keeping in line with selfish behavior. The tone and voice of the reader kept my interest and was not monotone like certain audiobooks. Interesting read, difficult book to discuss with others due to people not willing to give this theory a chance. One thing we humans are great at is self delusion.
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Overall
- Anonymous User
- 10-11-18
potentially life-changing
a great insight into the human mind and motives. it can change the way you look at others but especially yourself.
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40 people found this helpful
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- Jody
- 06-20-19
Interesting but repetitive
It was an interesting read but overall it just felt repetitive. Definitely not a bad book but I feel like it could have been shortened by quite a bit and conveyed the same message. Worth it if you're interested in human social evolution.
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12 people found this helpful
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- lee
- 03-05-19
Interesting new perspective
The book was not overly dry despite the subject. I especially enjoyed one of the authors internal conflict with the subject matter while writing it.
It offers a decent understanding of our subconscious and explains how we may naturally be more selfish than we'd like to admit
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11 people found this helpful
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- David G
- 05-11-19
Very relatable analysis on human motives
If you're looking for anecdotal evidence on what drives us, this book is worth the listen.
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- Dennies
- 06-04-21
your hidden motives shines with this book
in the evolutionary standpoint it shows that we don't do things because they are good but also for slew of other reasons. there are good and relatable examples from contents of this book.
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- Luke
- 09-24-20
「醍醐灌顶」
Thoroughly surveying various social behaviors and frameworks, Simler and Hanson paint their human motive picture with clear structures and delight examples. Seen in countless works over the centuries, the thesis is as old as time: every man for himself. This time around though, the authors focus on concrete and detailed results, hand holding readers to walk through every myths and norms we now see as the direct or indirect but inevitable consequences of human selfishness. However, that should not the end of the day. Early confucian philosopher Xunzi is known for the same arguments, but I also remind myself that Confucius' remark that the greatest achievement of a person is to withdraw and be indifferent to those selfish motives hence becoming a saint. Anyway, I recommend this book with great enthusiasm. Also, this is my first review on Audible, it is that good.
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- Douglas Williams
- 10-17-19
An easy but intellectual listen.
this is an awesome book that covers much of what we know but can't explain. The inconvenient truth of psychology.
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