COMMENT:Gilovich, a social psychologist, provides an impressive and easy to read discussion on how we acquire and persist in certain false beliefs. Starting out with the myth of the "hot hand" in basketball, he shows how humans are handicapped in dealing with randomness, statistical inference in the presence of inadequate information, and evaluating data when there are strong motivations involved. He emphasizes that these arise from human cognitive mechanisms that usually work very well, not strange defects. His discussion of ESP as a case study is especially illuminating. A book well worth reading, particularly for non-psychologists.
DATE:19980924
KEYWORDS:psi psychology quackery skepticism
MISC:216p.
PUBLISHER:The Free Press
SUBMITADDR:bibliographer@csicop.org
SUBMITNAME:Taner Edis
TITLE:How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
