Emotional
How Feelings Shape Our Thinking
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4.3 • 19 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
We’ve all been told that thinking rationally is the key to success. But at the cutting edge of science, researchers are discovering that feeling is every bit as important as thinking in this "lively exposé of the growing consensus about the limited power of rationality and decision-making" (The New York Times Book Review).
You make hundreds of decisions every day, from what to eat for breakfast to how you should invest, and not one of those decisions would be possible without emotion. It has long been said that thinking and feeling are separate and opposing forces in our behavior. But as Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of Subliminal, tells us, extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking.
How can you connect better with others? How can you make sense of your frustration, fear, and anxiety? What can you do to live a happier life? The answers lie in understanding your emotions. Journeying from the labs of pioneering scientists to real-world scenarios that have flirted with disaster, Mlodinow shows us how our emotions can help, why they sometimes hurt, and what we can learn in both instances.
Using deep insights into our evolution and biology, Mlodinow gives us the tools to understand our emotions better and to maximize their benefits. Told with his characteristic clarity and fascinating stories, Emotional explores the new science of feelings and offers us an essential guide to making the most of one of nature’s greatest gifts.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this fascinating book, physicist and science writer Leonard Mlodinow explores how emotions play a pivotal role in the lives of creatures big and very small. (Did you know that it’s been proven that fruit flies feel emotions, and that they drink more alcohol when they’re sad?) Part self-help guide, part memoir, and part wildly interesting science book, Emotional drops a bit of a bombshell: Instead of being obstacles to rational thinking, emotions are actually essential to making good decisions. Mlodinow backs this up with cutting-edge research, while he also weaves in moving personal stories about his parents’ experiences as Holocaust survivors and anecdotes about real-life events, like Ernest Shackleton’s fatal Antarctic expedition. Fans of Malcolm Gladwell’s books will devour this quirky new perspective on feelings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"We can't make decisions, or even think, without being influenced by our emotions," writes physicist Mlodinow (The Drunkard's Walk) in this moving deep dive into the role of feelings in everyday life. Contrary to long-held views that reason and emotion are opposites, Mlodinow shows that a new field called affective neuroscience has demonstrated that "emotion is a gift" which enables humans to "quickly and efficiently make sense of our circumstances so that we can react as necessary." He makes a convincing case that, instead of detracting from intelligence, such responses allow for better decision-making and more effective communication. He offers plenty of colorful examples: Mlodinow's parents, both Holocaust survivors, appear as case studies—each responded to their trauma differently—and illustrate that such responses are a result of "our shadowy unconscious mind" applying lessons from the past. Studies from nature appear, as well: readers will learn that male fruit flies experience sadness and respond to romantic disappointment by drinking alcohol. Mlodinow successfully shows how emotions can be assessed, regulated, and controlled, and powerfully concludes that understanding them is a lifelong project that's "not just a science but an art." This is a must-read for fans of Daniel Kahneman.
