Good clues for detecting lies but better insights into human nature.
The latest from the veteran psychotherapist and author of Get Anyone To Do Anything and Never Be Lied to Again.
Readers will perk up at Lieberman’s claim to offer “near-telepathic” techniques to reveal what people think and detect lies. “You will be privy to what lies deep in their subconscious mind,” he writes, “even when they themselves may be in denial and unwilling (or unable) to confront their thoughts, feelings, and fears on a conscious level.” The author is well versed in the latest advances in psycholinguistics and neurophysiology, but no mind reading miracles appear. Nonetheless, Lieberman is a fine writer, so readers searching for sensible clues that someone might be deceiving them will receive a solid education along with sporadic warnings not to rely on a single tactic. Despite a deep understanding of human psychology and the occasional caution, Lieberman hints but never stresses that no perfect lie detector (human or electronic) exists—not even one that is 95% effective. The best human lie detectors—interrogation experts with the police, military, CIA, FBI, etc.—regularly indict innocent suspects, and criminology gurus who proclaim techniques for ferreting out the guilty are almost always debunked. Near the halfway point of the text, Lieberman changes course, eschewing clues for winning at poker in favor of an excellent primer on healthy versus pathological human behavior. Perhaps most intriguing is the author’s explanation of the contrast between self-esteem and egotism, qualities that seem similar but are inversely related. Individuals with self-esteem like themselves, so they don’t require respect from others to feel worthy. As self-esteem declines, egotism assumes power to defend against a presumably hostile world—or at least to make excuses. Egotists seem powerful, but the opposite is true: “It’s the insecure person who has to tell us how confident he is—because that’s the only way we’re going to find out.”
Good clues for detecting lies but better insights into human nature.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-23618-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Rodale
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
