by David J. Lieberman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2022
Good clues for detecting lies but better insights into human nature.
The latest from the veteran psychotherapist and author of Get Anyone To Do Anything and Never Be Lied to Again.
Readers will perk up at Lieberman’s claim to offer “near-telepathic” techniques to reveal what people think and detect lies. “You will be privy to what lies deep in their subconscious mind,” he writes, “even when they themselves may be in denial and unwilling (or unable) to confront their thoughts, feelings, and fears on a conscious level.” The author is well versed in the latest advances in psycholinguistics and neurophysiology, but no mind reading miracles appear. Nonetheless, Lieberman is a fine writer, so readers searching for sensible clues that someone might be deceiving them will receive a solid education along with sporadic warnings not to rely on a single tactic. Despite a deep understanding of human psychology and the occasional caution, Lieberman hints but never stresses that no perfect lie detector (human or electronic) exists—not even one that is 95% effective. The best human lie detectors—interrogation experts with the police, military, CIA, FBI, etc.—regularly indict innocent suspects, and criminology gurus who proclaim techniques for ferreting out the guilty are almost always debunked. Near the halfway point of the text, Lieberman changes course, eschewing clues for winning at poker in favor of an excellent primer on healthy versus pathological human behavior. Perhaps most intriguing is the author’s explanation of the contrast between self-esteem and egotism, qualities that seem similar but are inversely related. Individuals with self-esteem like themselves, so they don’t require respect from others to feel worthy. As self-esteem declines, egotism assumes power to defend against a presumably hostile world—or at least to make excuses. Egotists seem powerful, but the opposite is true: “It’s the insecure person who has to tell us how confident he is—because that’s the only way we’re going to find out.”
Good clues for detecting lies but better insights into human nature.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-23618-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Rodale
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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by Nicole Avant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2023
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
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
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