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How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives
W. W. Norton & Company
July 2011
On Sale: July 11, 2011
310 pages
ISBN: 0393076024
EAN: 9780393076028
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A lively, surprising tour of our mental glitches and how
they arise.
With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more
beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but
it's far from perfect. Our memory is unreliable; we can't
multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates
our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different
from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to
shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain;
and what we presume to be rational decisions are often
anything but. Drawing on striking examples and fascinating
studies, neuroscientist Dean Buonomano illuminates the
causes and consequences of these "bugs" in terms of the
brain's innermost workings and their evolutionary purposes.
He then goes one step further, examining how our brains
function-and malfunction-in the digital, predator-free,
information-saturated, special effects-addled world that we
have built for ourselves. Along the way, Brain Bugs gives us
the tools to hone our cognitive strengths while recognizing
our inherent weaknesses. 10 black-and-white illustrations
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