A well-researched, absorbing psychological study of white evangelicals.
A psychologist explores the mindset of modern white evangelicals in this nonfiction book.
“For many of us who grew up in the white evangelical subculture,” writes author Verhaagen, “we thought we were going one place, but we ended up somewhere else.” Like millions of Americans who grew up in evangelical communities but have subsequently become disaffected with religion, Verhaagen found that the love-your-neighbor message he was taught in Sunday school was actually “part of a subculture that appeared self-centered, angry, and unattractive.” Now a psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chapel Hill, the author combines scholarly insights with his insider’s perspective as one “who has been soaking in evangelicalism for over forty years.” While the last decade has seen a bevy of books on white evangelicalism by historians and sociologists, this one offers an additional layer to the literature by incorporating astute psychological insights. The heavily researched work has a 55-page bibliography and provides numerous interesting stats. For instance, within America’s conservative Christian subculture, there is a “higher than average” percentage of people with narcissistic personality disorder. This is connected to another trait among many evangelicals, a rigid mindset that implicitly tells itself, “I am already special, set apart, blessed, chosen—and I didn’t have to lift a finger to get here.” The social and political ramifications of these mindsets, as anyone who follows American history and contemporary life knows, have profound political and social implications. Verhaagen’s extensive research is combined with a rare sensitivity to the nuances of evangelicalism that criticizes but never stereotypes. The author of eight previous books, Verhaagen is a talented writer who strikes an impressive balance between scholarly research and an accessible writing style. Though admitting that many steadfast conservative evangelicals may dismiss his argument as “liberalism,” the author nevertheless seeks to educate those within the author’s former religious community. This particularly applies to issues of race (“church attendance,” he contends, “correlated with more—not less—racist attitudes”), as the book features a supplemental appendix that provides “Evidence of Systemic Racism.”
A well-researched, absorbing psychological study of white evangelicals.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1666710694
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Cascade Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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