Reviews

The Psychology of Stupidity by Jean-François Marmion

lapsedreader2024's review

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I purchased this book on impulse (probably an act of stupidity in itself!) as I thought it may offer insight into where my own dark spots and biases lie. I was hoping to understand the main reasons in which people do or say stupid things, and why, as I thought this could be useful for self development purposes.  However the book itself is very rambling and obsessed with synonyms and other casual terminology for the word stupidity - which almost becomes childish and annoying. It’s a collection of essays by apparently prominent individuals on the subject, and I have the feeling you’d be better off reading their actual works in full, than this amalgamation of abridged works on stupidity. 

Was the author in a rush to get a book published? It lacks originality and depth. I didn’t gain anything from this book on ‘the psychology of stupidity’ that a search on Google AI wouldn’t produce. 

I’m keen to hear about better alternatives on the subject. 

noah_goose's review

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funny informative lighthearted slow-paced

3.25

booksanddachshunds's review

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informative

3.0

While I won’t reread this one, i’m grateful for the informations I have gotten from this book!

grumpyfarmer's review

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informative slow-paced

3.0

emtay's review

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challenging informative slow-paced

2.5

Some essays and conversations were useful. The repetitive opening paragraph used by nearly every contributor started confusing and ended plain hilarious. 

cameronwintrs's review

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dark funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

julietteisbored's review

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3.0

I feel that the book suffered from its length. After about half, the book felt repetitive and any of the interesting info I read at the beginning blurred with everything else. Simply put, you can only write so long about why people do stupid things and how it affects society.

heatherjones's review

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4.0

Thank you to Penguin for giving me a free galley of "The Psychology of Stupidity" in exchange for feedback.

This book is a collection of short essays by psychologists and other people expert in the workings of the human mind, on the subject of stupidity. It is translated from the French, which I didn't realize when I opened it, but it was fine- some of the pop culture references were a little unfamiliar, but the translation was competent, and the inevitable references to President Trump transcend the boundaries of language.

In a different year, I might object to foreign writers so frequently using the American president as an example of so many different ideas about stupidity, but in this year... Mr. President, if you don't want to be featured prominently in a book about the psychology of stupidity, maybe you should have made an effort to be a less obvious example.

The essays cover a variety of topics - different types of stupidity, the conditions that cause people to behave stupidity, the special stupidity of.crowds, the difficulty in recognizing one's own stupidity, and more. Some of them fell a little flat for me, and others made me think about things I hadn't thought about before, which is as much as you can ask from a collection of essays, in general.

There were times when the combination of research and humor didn't work for me, especially in places where it struck me as mean-spirited or name-calling. But that's a matter of personal taste, and what didn't work for me might work well for a different reader.