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The author, Shankar Vedantam, is the host of the popular NPR program by the same name. He started looking into what he termed the hidden brain when he became curious about many decisions that people made that just didn't make rational sense. He, like everyone else, assumed that we make our best decisions by relying upon our rational mind. He sensed that this was not accurate description of the procedure by which we make all of our decisions and he sought to investigate the process by which we make our decisions. He dug into the psychological literature to get at all the existing research on biases and reasons why we usually don’t call upon our conscious or rational brain. The resulting book is a treasure trove of studies and anecdotes that goes to prove his points.
Interestingly, this book came out in 2010, before Daniel Kahneman published his tome: Thinking: Fast and Slow and well before David Epstein published Range in 2019. They all investigated the same phenomenon albeit with different means. Vedantam is a journalist, as is Epstein, and Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winning economist. Both Vedantam and Epstein called upon the research of others to draw their conclusions whereas Kahneman had been conducting his own research with Amos Tversky for decades.
Vedantam talks about the conscious brain versus the hidden brain when digs in deeper into the research on the subconscious biases and irrational conclusions that we draw when making quick decisions. Kahneman and Epstein uses Kahneman and Tversky terms of System 1 and System 2 thinking. Indeed, conscious brain can is the System 2 and the Hidden brain is the System 1.
Vedantam establishes his argument in the first two chapters of the book and then he delves into the studies that he had gathered in the succeeding chapters. He pairs the findings with great stories which integrates nicely with his arguments and each chapter is an enjoyable read which serves a greater purpose: to show the perniciousness of the biases which dominates our hidden brain. He ultimately draws some interesting conclusions in Chapter 10, where he tries to bring everything together.
I probably should have known about this book earlier, as I would have read it before I was exposed to the works of the others. Remarkably, The Hidden Brain has withstood the test of rapidly changing knowledge and research into the unconscious mind and still tells a great set of stories which shows us that our decision making prowess is indeed affected by our hidden biases, more importantly, other people, people in positions of authority or in a position to affect lives are also affected by the hidden brain. What is worse, they are not aware about how their hidden brain affects their decisions, or they just don’t care.
Interestingly, this book came out in 2010, before Daniel Kahneman published his tome: Thinking: Fast and Slow and well before David Epstein published Range in 2019. They all investigated the same phenomenon albeit with different means. Vedantam is a journalist, as is Epstein, and Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winning economist. Both Vedantam and Epstein called upon the research of others to draw their conclusions whereas Kahneman had been conducting his own research with Amos Tversky for decades.
Vedantam talks about the conscious brain versus the hidden brain when digs in deeper into the research on the subconscious biases and irrational conclusions that we draw when making quick decisions. Kahneman and Epstein uses Kahneman and Tversky terms of System 1 and System 2 thinking. Indeed, conscious brain can is the System 2 and the Hidden brain is the System 1.
Vedantam establishes his argument in the first two chapters of the book and then he delves into the studies that he had gathered in the succeeding chapters. He pairs the findings with great stories which integrates nicely with his arguments and each chapter is an enjoyable read which serves a greater purpose: to show the perniciousness of the biases which dominates our hidden brain. He ultimately draws some interesting conclusions in Chapter 10, where he tries to bring everything together.
I probably should have known about this book earlier, as I would have read it before I was exposed to the works of the others. Remarkably, The Hidden Brain has withstood the test of rapidly changing knowledge and research into the unconscious mind and still tells a great set of stories which shows us that our decision making prowess is indeed affected by our hidden biases, more importantly, other people, people in positions of authority or in a position to affect lives are also affected by the hidden brain. What is worse, they are not aware about how their hidden brain affects their decisions, or they just don’t care.
While written over a decade ago, the themes of The Hidden Brain are incredibly relevant to our current times. The book explains how we are “hardwired” and that many of our actions are not chosen by our thinking brain but instead a product of our hidden brain.
Fascinating read if the idea of unconscious bias interests you.
Fascinating read if the idea of unconscious bias interests you.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Suicide
Love Vedantam's work on NPR and his pod casts, but this book left me cold. Has some good thoughts on our internal bias, but I didn't like the examples. The book opens with a description of a rape and the wrongful conviction. The chapter on herd mentality used the example of a brutal attack and death of a young women in front of many witnesses, then segued into 9/11. Another chapter describes 2 murders and the how and why the convictions differed. Maybe not fair, but I wished he found some less violent examples to prove his points.
Longer form than his popular podcast- biggest gripe is that he didn’t voice it himself- a real pity.
Well, now I know that I don't really know myself. And you don't really know yourself. Okay, okay, it's not that bad. But we do many things without having a clear understanding of why we do them. This book shows cases in which people thought they had a reason for their actions, but the action actually resulted from some working of their hidden brain.
While it's great that I have a bit of an understanding about how my "hidden brain" works and what some of those cases are likely to be, I think it would be great to be able to identify when my hidden brain is taking over so I could take a closer look at the situation. Maybe his next book should focus on identifying and dealing with our hidden brains.
While it's great that I have a bit of an understanding about how my "hidden brain" works and what some of those cases are likely to be, I think it would be great to be able to identify when my hidden brain is taking over so I could take a closer look at the situation. Maybe his next book should focus on identifying and dealing with our hidden brains.
I read this book because I love Vedantam's podcast (also called Hidden Brain). This book was a quick read -- I read most of it on a lazy Saturday afternoon. It offers valuable insights on the role of the unconscious brain in what Vedantam calls concentric circles, starting from biases in schoolchildren all the way to the hidden brain's influence in presidential elections. Though Vedantam engages in a number of controversial topics -- racial biases, suicide bombers, and gun ownership -- this book strives to avoid political affiliations, instead sticking to scientific research. Perhaps my main quibble with this book is that it feels short: fortunately, Vedantam continues much of the same line of inquiry in his podcast (which I highly recommend).
While this was interesting at times, it also left me feeling deeply hopeless & depressed.
Some chapters were interesting. I thought the chapters on group dynamics with terrorists or in disasters was fascinating. Other chapters, though, were an ahoy Captain Obvious! waste of my time. Like, did you know sexism exists in the workplace? It's true, science has proved it. Thanks, science! SO NOW WHAT.
The stories also go on for way too long before you see any point to it all at the end of the tunnel. I just started skipping through them.
The stories also go on for way too long before you see any point to it all at the end of the tunnel. I just started skipping through them.