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Overview

You always know why you feel the way you do, right? Well, maybe not. You Are Now Less Dumb explains that we often don’t understand our own behavior and feelings. For example, when in a crowd or attracted to someone, it seems like we know what’s going on. However, there are many cases where we don’t really know why we say or do things.

This book contains interesting examples of how our brains are not always reliable. It also gives some tips to avoid getting fooled by these illusions.

In this passage, you’ll learn why home remedies don’t always work; how people often share similar opinions on topics; and that wearing a doctor’s coat can make you smarter.

Big Idea #1: Your brain fools you everyday – without you even realizing it!

Our brains trick us into believing strange things. We can be pretty sure that what we’re seeing is the truth, but our brain still tricks us into thinking otherwise.

Our perception of the world is unique to us. We might not always trust that what we see or sense is the only truth, since our experiences are different from others’. For example, in 1951, after an important football match between Dartmouth College and Princeton University, during which both teams struggled and Princeton ended up victorious, both schools published articles about it in their college newsletters.

The Princeton and Dartmouth football teams played each other in 1884. The game was fairly even, but the two schools had vastly different opinions about what happened during the game. Princeton students thought that Dartmouth’s actions were uncivilized, while Dartmouth students felt that both teams were to blame for any bad behavior and that the overall experience was fair.

Psychologists decided to investigate why some people are more passionate about football than others. They had students fill out questionnaires and concluded that the students’ passion for football depended on their attitude toward it as well as which school they supported.

Although all the students watched the same game, they interpreted what they witnessed differently. For example, a bee would have a different perception from that of humans. It’s important to remember this because we often get carried away with our own perceptions. However, if we’re aware of this fact at least some of the time, it will help us be less naive.

Big Idea #2: Our attitudes influence our behavior and vice versa.

Do you feel respected as a manager because you wear a suit to work, or do you wear a suit to work in order to be respected as a manager? It’s true that the way we act creates our attitudes, but it’s also true that our attitudes stem from how we act.

When we do a favor for someone, they like us more. However, when we ask someone to borrow something and they lend it to us, the person doing the favor likes the other person more than before. This is known as the Benjamin Franklin effect because he used this technique in his life.

Our behavior also influences how we feel about objects or situations.

In a study, researchers had participants sit at a desk and asked them to assess the meaning of unfamiliar Chinese symbols. The participants were either pulling or pushing on the table while doing this task. Results showed that those who pulled on the table felt more positively about the symbols than did those who pushed against it.

Because pulling is associated with positivity and pushing with negativity, the participants’ perception swayed accordingly. They were more likely to see a desirable item as closer after pulling it towards themselves than they were after pushing it away from them.