The Man Who Lied to His Laptop
What We Can Learn About Ourselves from Our Machines
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3.5 • 57 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Counterintuitive insights about building successful relationships- based on research into human-computer interaction.
Books like Predictably Irrational and Sway have revolutionized how we view human behavior. Now, Stanford professor Clifford Nass has discovered a set of rules for effective human relationships, drawn from an unlikely source: his study of our interactions with computers.
Based on his decades of research, Nass demonstrates that-although we might deny it-we treat computers and other devices like people: we empathize with them, argue with them, form bonds with them. We even lie to them to protect their feelings.
This fundamental revelation has led to groundbreaking research on how people should behave with one another. Nass's research shows that:Mixing criticism and praise is a wildly ineffective method of evaluationFlattery works-even when the recipient knows it's fakeIntroverts and extroverts are each best at selling to one of their own
Nass's discoveries provide nothing less than a new blueprint for successful human relationships.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nass, a Stanford researcher, has the fascinating and enviable job of performing research into human interactions with technology. Question: Why did BMW receive so many complaints about its navigation system from male German drivers? Answer: German men refused to take directions from a woman (the system had a female voice). To find out if misery truly loves company, Nass paired happy and sad drivers with happy and sad virtual passengers, finding that miserable drivers preferred to be paired with miserable passengers (albeit virtual), and visa versa. The results are often intriguing, but when it comes to discussing their implications, Nass falters. His experimental anecdotes end with a "Results and Implications" appendix, and his findings often sound as banal as the platitudes he's attempting to test. The author is at his most compelling when describing technology's human failures in the marketplace, such as the demise of the despised Microsoft "Clippy," whose apparent stupidity and lack of empathy doomed him as an application (killing marketing plans to turn him into a beloved Mickey Mouse-like character). Moments like these make Nass's examination an engaging compendium of technological faux pas.
