Showing titles in Social Psychology & Interactions

It happens everywhere: offices, schools, even your own backyard. And, seemingly, anything can trigger it: cell phones, sirens, bad music, constant distractions, your boss, or even your spouse. We all know certain things get under our skin. Can science explain why? NPR's Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman take you on a scientific quest through psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and other disciplines to uncover the truth about being annoyed.

Why did Paul Gauguin abandon middle-class life to follow the path of a starving artist? What inspired Bill Gates to give away so much of his hard-won fortune? How has Donald Trump succeeded so excessively, when his winning style could easily be his greatest liability? As the renowned emotion researcher Jessica Tracy reveals in Take Pride, each of these superachievers has been motivated by an often maligned emotion: pride.

Popular is a fresh and fascinating book about the science of popularity. Based on 20 years of research and written by popularity expert Mitch Prinstein, it investigates what popularity is, why we care about it so much - even if we don't think we do - what kind of popularity is worth caring about and how we can get the popularity we want, even if we didn't have it when we were younger.

The desire for dignity is universal and powerful. It is a motivating force behind all human interaction - in families, in communities, in the business world, and in relationships at the international level. When dignity is violated, the response is likely to involve aggression, even violence, hatred, and vengeance. On the other hand, when people treat one another with dignity, they become more connected and are able to create more meaningful relationships.

Bloomsbury presents Mirror Thinking by Fiona Murden, read by Bea Holland. Parents, friends, teachers, relatives, and even work colleagues – from the people close to us to those we never even meet – other people are constantly shaping who we are. The mirror neuron is a part of the brain that...

In an age riven by "fake news," "alternative facts," and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, the authors argue that social factors, not individual psychology, are what's essential to understanding the persistence of false belief and that we must know how those social forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively.

Think of the way you keep up quirky family traditions. How listening to a certain song before speaking in public can calm you down. Or why it feels so strange to sleep on the opposite side of the bed. These are rituals: practices that are imbued with symbolic meaning. And they have the power to turn black-and-white moments into technicolour. Harvard professor and world-leading rituals expert Michael Norton uses his cutting-edge research to show the impact that these everyday actions have on our lives -- and how transforming habits into rituals can give us purpose and pleasure.

'A timely bridge for our divided world' - Adam Grant, bestselling author of Give and Take Open your mind, heal your relationships, and connect across divides with this groundbreaking guide to deep curiosity from internationally-recognized curiosity expert, Scott Shigeoka. At a time when tensions...

Conspirituality takes a deep dive into the troubling phenomenon of influencers who have curdled New Age spirituality and wellness with the politics of paranoia—peddling vaccine misinformation, tales of child trafficking, and wild conspiracy theories. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic...

"Subtly altered how I see the world." —Michelle Goldberg, New York Times “[Status and Culture] consistently posits theories I'd never previously considered that instantly feel obvious.” —Chuck Klosterman, author of The Nineties “Why are you the way that you are? Status and Culture...

From the author of the best-selling Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy, a next-level guide for people looking to build secure attachment in nonmonogamous relationships.

"An extraordinary book on sex and civilization . . . An important contribution to contemporary morality." —Newsweek The heart of man's dilemma, according to Rollo May, is the failure to understand the real meaning of love and will, their source and interrelation. Bringing fresh insight to...

Social psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery presents a provocative, powerful theory of identity, arguing that there is no essential ""self""—our selves are social creations of those with whom we interact —exploring what that means for who we can be and who we allow others to be...

Why do people reject science and believe online conspiracy theories? How are people radicalized online and go on to commit acts of violence? Why is our society so politically polarized? Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. Covid denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence...

This is a hopeful, consoling, gentle book about failure. Our societies talk a lot about success, but the reality is that no one gets through life without failing–in small and usually also in large ways. Sometimes our failures are very obvious, at other times, we feel we have to conceal them out of shame. This book encourages us to accept the role that failure plays for all of us and to feel compassion for ourselves for the messes we can’t help but make as we go through our lives.

Brought to you by Penguin. An eye-opening journey through the secret forces shaping our opinions, this book reveals why we think what we think – and why disagreement matters Our opinions – whether we believe in God or in ghosts, our views on sex or animal rights or immigration, our basic...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. What if the way you think, react, and decide is being directed by scripts you never chose? In the 1970s, a Harvard psychologist proved that one empty word could open 93 percent of doors. Most people will live their whole lives without noticing the...

In a world where there is so much conflicting information about how we are supposed to live, what can we really know? Knowing the truth, what’s real from what’s fake, should be easy. In today’s world, that’s far from the case. In The Certainty Illusion, Timothy Caulfield lifts the...

Journalist and applied behavioral scientist Elizabeth Weingarten charts a new path to embrace the questions of our lives instead of seeking fast, easy answers. What do you do when faced with a big, important question that keeps you up at night? Many people, understandably, seize answers...

In today's self-blame culture, it often feels impossible not to carry shame about the choices we make and the values by which we live. When the political is so personal, and the personal is so political, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sense that we're not doing enough - maybe, even, that we're not enough. In this bold and transformative manifesto, social psychologist and author of Unmasking Autism Dr Devon Price takes an in-depth look at shame and the role it plays in our lives. Systemic Shame traps us into fighting unwinnable battles and judging others for their failures.