Product Description

Why is it that Tony Blair always wore the same pair of shoes when answering Prime Minister's Questions? That John McEnroe notoriously refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points? And that President-elect Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary, and continued the tradition the day of every following primary? Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supersedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it? How about £20 for trying on a jumper owned by Fred West? Where do such feelings come from and why do most of us have them? Humans are born with brains designed to make sense of the world and that need for an explanation can lead to beliefs that go beyond reason. To be true they would have to be supernatural. With scientific education we learn that such beliefs are irrational but at an intuitive level they can be resistant to reason or lie dormant in otherwise sensible adults. It now seems unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs or superstitious behaviours will be completely successful. This is not all bad news – such beliefs are a useful glue that binds us together as a society. Combining brilliant insight with witty example Hood weaves a page-turning account of our ‘supersense’ that navigates a path through brain science, child development, popular culture, mental illness and the paranormal. After reading SuperSense, you will realize why you are not as reasonable as you might like to think – and why that might be no bad thing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24723 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Bruce Hood s fascinating, timely and important book..Hood s presentation of the science behind our supersense is crystal clear and utterly engaging ....perhaps the millions who read and loved that book (Dawkins' God Delusion) can also read and learn to love - Supersense. - New Scientist

An intriguing look at a feature of the human mind that is subtle in its operation but profound in its consequences. - Steven Pinker

A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley

Marvelous … chock full of real-world examples reinforced by experimental research, Hood builds a theoretical model to explain how the mind comes to sense that there is something beyond the natural world, something supernatural …. This book is an important contribution to the psychological literature that is revealing the actuality of our very irrational human nature. - Michael Shermer, Science

A fun and thought-provoking read … you will find something here to challenge the way you see yourself and others. --BBC Focus magazine

A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley

A fascinating and readable book, and one of the best books on the subject of why everyone sometimes believes weird things. --Fortean Times

A fascinating cornucopia of weird and strange stories and incidents that combine to present both a physiological and psychological case for the human instinct to need to believe. I would thoroughly recommend this book. --Stephen Woolley

About the Author
Bruce Hood is currently the Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol. He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard.

Customer Reviews

Informative and easy to understand
Compared to some of the books of the same genre, which often seem to unravel into an angry rant against God/gods, this book is rational and scientific. Professor Hood's tone is gentle, endearing, and witty. He exposes and explains the evolutionary reasons for human superstition and religion, without any moral judgement, but with a lot of sense! I can't recommend highly enough to skeptics and believers alike.

Great read
Fascinating book I really enjoyed it! It is quite a page turner from Chapter 1 but could also be dipped into for witty anecdotes throughout. There is no need to be a scientist as it is aimed at the general public and if you have an interest in why humans behave in the way they do, particularly around the superstitious and religion, then you will definitely want to read this book. I found it a very balanced view and smoothly written with excellent examples. A fascinating and accessible book that ought to be a best seller!

The most convincing explanation I have seen...
... for our openness to supernatural beliefs of all kinds, religious "psychic", or simply superstitious. Prof Hood develops his argument with repeated appeals to common experience and to experimental data.

The author, a professor of developmental psychology, relates these to the way our minds work, just as optical illusions are related to the way our visual cortex works. For example, from early in life, we regard physical objects as being moved by mental forces. That is the way we inevitably continue to feel about our own bodies, even if philosophically we know that this is absurd. Hence the supernatural belief that events must have a "why" as well as a "how".

This is only one of several important ideas developed here, but I won't go into more detail for fear of spoiling your pleasure in reading this book. Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever is not going to be changed by reading this book, nor is that the intention, but what will be changed is your degree of insight into your own mind and the minds of others.