Leonard Mlodinow

An examination of the ways in which the unconscious mind shapes everyday life traces recent scientific advances to reveal the pivotal role of the subliminal mind in influencing experiences and relationships. By the author of The Drunkard's Walk. 100,000 first printing.

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

Subliminal

In Subliminal Leonard Mlodinow reveals the incredible hidden power of our unconscious, and how it shapes our experience of the world. We are only aware of 5% of what's going on in our brain. Almost everything we do - who we marry, how we interact with friends and colleagues, who we vote for, how we handle money, even what we think we remember about our past - is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by our conscious awareness, as we have long believed. Here Mlodinow unravels the subliminal self, showing us how the human mind really works. 'After reading this book, you will look at yourself (and those around you) in a new way.' Joseph T. Hallinan, author of Why We Make Mistakes 'With great wit and intelligence, Mlodinow takes us on a sweeping tour of the latest revelations in neuroscience.' Huffington Post 'An illuminating journey through a hidden world.' Nature 'Leonard Mlodinow never fails to make science both accessible and entertaining.' Stephen Hawking

The New Unconscious and what it Teaches Us

Altay

Nelson Zagalo

Já não é a primeira vez que aqui trago o trabalho de Leonard Mlodinow, que se tem vindo a assumir como um dos mais influentes comunicadores de ciência da atualidade, contudo o modo como desta vez procedeu ao levantamento do tema acabou por revelar-se, em minha opinião, bastante superficial, desde logo porque não existe qualquer menção ao trabalho mais relevante da área, o de Daniel Kahneman e Amos Tversky. Ou seja, Mlodinow fala de experiências similares, mas ao não reconhecer o trabalho prévio, acaba por não recorrer a todo um manancial de conhecimento criado nas últimas décadas no domínio da Behavioural Economics, que desde logo fica evidente num título assente num conceito que foi popular há mais de 30 anos mas entretanto caiu em desuso: "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior" (2011).

Mlodinow trata o modo como o cérebro opera a realidade, nomeadamente a relação entre consciente e não-consciente, e como essa constante passagem entre os dois modos produz desvios ou erros nos processos de racionalização. Ou seja, Mlodinow analisa o impacto desses erros de leitura a partir das capacidades dos processos cognitivos de percepção, memória e atenção sobre as relações humanas, ou processos de socialização. Fala-nos assim do modo como lemos e julgamos os outros por meio de generalizações que o nosso cérebro opera para conseguir lidar com a complexidade da realidade. Deixo um excerto que resume os processos descritos:

“We like to think we judge people as individuals, and at times we consciously try very hard to evaluate others on the basis of their unique characteristics. We often succeed. But if we don’t know a person well, our minds can turn to his or her social category for the answers. Earlier we saw how the brain fills in gaps in visual data — for instance, compensating for the blind spot where the optic nerve attaches to the retina. We also saw how our hearing fills gaps, such as when a cough obliterated a syllable or two in the sentence “The state governors met with their respective legislatures convening in the capital city.” And we saw how our memory will add the details of a scene we remember only in broad strokes and provide a vivid and complete picture of a face even though our brains retained only its general features. In each of these cases our subliminal minds take incomplete data, use context or other cues to complete the picture, make educated guesses, and produce a result that is sometimes accurate, sometimes not, but always convincing. Our minds also fill in the blanks when we judge people, and a person’s category membership is part of the data we use to do that.”

Publicado no VI: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

Wojciech Waśniewski

Fascinating book! Full of anecdotes, very easy to read and funny. Highly recommend to anyone interested in quirky ways of the human brain.

Rina

Mark

Alice

Subliminal is all about how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world far more than we realize, from our relationships with family, friends and business associates to the way we handle money and even our own past. Over the past two decades scientific researchers have developed remarkable new tools for probing the hidden, or subliminal, workings of the mind. These cutting-edge discoveries have revealed that the way we experience life is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed. Employing his trademark wit and his lucid, accessible explanations of the most obscure scientific subjects, Leonard Mlodinow unravels the complexities of the subliminal self, increasing our understanding of how the human mind works. In the process he changes our view of ourselves and the world around us. 'With the same deft touch he showed in The Drunkard's Walk, Mlodinow probes the subtle, automatic, and often unnoticed influences on our behaviour.' Daniel J. Simons, co-author of The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us 'Think you know the whys and hows of your choices? Think again. Follow Mlodinow on a gorgeous journey into the enormous mental backstage behind the curtain of consciousness.' David Eagleman, Author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain 'Leonard Mlodinow never fails to make science both accessible and entertaining.' Stephen Hawking

Subliminal How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

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