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Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us
Crown Archetype
May 2011
On Sale: May 3, 2011
272 pages ISBN: 0307717755 EAN: 9780307717757 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Have you ever wondered why a trumpeter of family values
would suddenly turn around and cheat on his wife? Why
jealousy would send an otherwise level-headed person into a
violent rage? What could drive a person to blow a family
fortune at the blackjack tables?
Or have you ever pondered what might make Mr. Right leave
his beloved at the altar, why hypocrisy seems to be rampant,
or even why, every once in awhile, even you are secretly
tempted, to lie, cheat, or steal (or, conversely, help
someone you never even met)?
This book answers these questions and more, and in doing so,
turns the prevailing wisdom about who we are upside down.
Our character, argue psychologists DeSteno and Valdesolo,
isn’t a stable set of traits, but rather a shifting state
that is subject to the constant push and pull of hidden
mechanisms in our mind. And it's the battle between these
dueling psychological forces that determine how we act at
any given point in time.
Drawing on the surprising results of the clever experiments
concocted in their own laboratory, DeSteno and Valdesolo
shed new scientific light on so many of the puzzling
behaviors that regularly grace the headlines. For example,
you’ll learn: • Why Tiger Woods just couldn’t resist the allure of his
mistresses even though he had a picture-perfect family at
home. And why no one, including those who knew him best,
ever saw it coming. • Why even the shrewdest of investors can be tempted to
gamble their fortunes away (and why risky financial behavior
is driven by the same mechanisms that compel us to root for
the underdog in sports). • Why Eliot Spitzer, who made a career of crusading
against prostitution, turned out to be one of the most
famous johns of all time. • Why Mel Gibson, a noted philanthropist and devout
Catholic, has been repeatedly caught spewing racist rants,
even though close friends say he doesn’t have a racist bone
in his body. • And why any of us is capable of doing the same, whether
we believe it or not! A surprising look at the hidden forces driving the saint and
sinner lurking in us all, Out of Character reveals why human
behavior is so much more unpredictable than we ever realized.
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