The Intelligence Trap

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781473669857

Price: £10.99

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‘Essential reading for anyone who wants to think more clearly’ ROLF DOBELLI
‘Ceaselessly fascinating and brilliantly written’ WILL STORR
‘A startling, provocative and potently useful book’ SUNDAY TIMES

A toolkit for intelligent people to become smarter, overcoming their blind spots and maximising their potential.

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

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
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