
The Intelligence Trap
The ultimate guide to help you revolutionise your thinking, make wiser decisions and transform your life
David Robson(Author)
Hodder Paperback (Publisher)
Published on 6. February 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-4736-6985-7 (ISBN)
Description
The life-changing toolkit to help you maximise your potential, from the author of The Expectation Effect.
'Essential reading for anyone who wants to think more clearly.' - ROLF DOBELLI, multi-million copy bestselling author of The Art of Thinking Clearly
We assume that smarter people are less prone to error. But education and expertise can sometimes make our mistakes worse and our blind spots bigger. Why did genius Steve Jobs make errors of judgement? Why do doctors misdiagnose 10-15% of their patients? Why do Nobel Prize winners spread fake news? This is the intelligence trap.
Drawing on the latest behavioural science and great brains from Socrates to Benjamin Franklin, David Robson demonstrates how to apply our intelligence more wisely. He shows us how we can identify bias, read and regulate our emotions, fine-tune our intuition, navigate ambiguity and uncertainty and think more flexibly.
Whether you are a NASA scientist or a school student, The Intelligence Trap offers a new toolkit to realise your full potential.
'Essential reading for anyone who wants to think more clearly.' - ROLF DOBELLI, multi-million copy bestselling author of The Art of Thinking Clearly
We assume that smarter people are less prone to error. But education and expertise can sometimes make our mistakes worse and our blind spots bigger. Why did genius Steve Jobs make errors of judgement? Why do doctors misdiagnose 10-15% of their patients? Why do Nobel Prize winners spread fake news? This is the intelligence trap.
Drawing on the latest behavioural science and great brains from Socrates to Benjamin Franklin, David Robson demonstrates how to apply our intelligence more wisely. He shows us how we can identify bias, read and regulate our emotions, fine-tune our intuition, navigate ambiguity and uncertainty and think more flexibly.
Whether you are a NASA scientist or a school student, The Intelligence Trap offers a new toolkit to realise your full potential.
Reviews / Votes
Deftly digs into why smart people can do so many dumb things and leads us deep into the world of our own mental booby trap. -- Tim Harford We need to find new and better ways to teach critical thinking and measure good judgement. Reading David Robson's book would be a good place to start. * Wall Street Journal * An elegant survey of current thinking about thinking, and how best to do it without pride, prejudice, or arrogance. * Mail on Sunday * A startling, provocative and potently useful book. * Sunday Times * Brilliant. The Intelligence Trap combines mesmerising storytelling with groundbreaking new research about why having a high IQ can backfire. Essential reading for anyone who wants to think more clearly. * Rolf Dobelli, author of the million-copy-selling Art of Thinking Clearly * A fascinating and enjoyable investigation of what intelligence is and isn't, by one of the most exciting new voices in science writing. This thought-provoking and brilliantly researched guide to achieving true wisdom shows us how to be smarter - and how to protect ourselves from the cleverest fools. * Gaia Vince, prize-winning author of Adventures in the Anthropocene * I loved The Intelligence Trap. As fun to read as it is fascinating, it celebrates the power of humility and curiosity. Everyone, especially intelligent people, should read this brilliant and important book. * Anna Rosling-Ronnlund * The Intelligence Trap is ceaselessly fascinating and brilliantly written by one of our most consistently superb science writers. Its counter-intuitive argument, that intelligence is no inoculation against wrongness, explains so much about the fractious and baffling times in which we live. * Will Storr, author of SELFIE *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 200 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
252 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4736-6985-7 (9781473669857)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2019
1st Edition
Hodder & Stoughton
€0.99
Available for download
Person
David Robson is an award-winning science journalist. He was a features editor at New Scientist for five years before joining BBC Future as a senior journalist, where he specialised in psychology, neuroscience and medicine. He regularly features on the radio discussing scientific issues, and his writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Atlantic and the Washington Post.