Somah's Blog

The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives by Shankar Vedantam

Fundamentally, Our Species is Flawed
My review on Amazon.com

The author tries to accomplish two things throughout this book: Explain how the hidden brain works and how it influences human behavior. He doesn't, however, explain how the hidden brain has evolved or how it can be changed, which to me is a crucial and expected takeaway when reading about the subject of the hidden, or unconscious, brain.

We come to understand through the extensive psychological research put into this book the reasons behind racial biases, prejudices, sexism and suicide bombings in our collective societies. The author challenges our preconceptions about the "intent" behind these behaviors and explains the real reasons behind their occurrences. The fascinating research shows that our unconscious brain, which is fast and visceral, dictates what our conscious brain, which is rational, deliberate and analytical, does.

One of the things the book draws attention to is the spotlight focus (aka tunnel vision) of the conscious brain and how the unconscious brain compensates for that limitation. Our attention is always focused on what we "choose" to focus on. Our unconscious brain's job is to adjust our behavior based on its own processing of the feedback it receives from everything outside our spotlight focus. This explains the distance we keep between each other while perusing artwork at the museum, for example.

Another fascinating discovery about the hidden brain is that it is influenced by other hidden brains. Ever wonder why in some situations where someone is attacked the witnesses never intervene to help knowing very well that it's wrong to stand idle? Well, it's because no one took the initiative to intervene, so everyone else followed suit. Individual hidden brains relinquish control to the group's "collective" hidden brain. Same thing explains why some floors on the World Trade Center towers were evacuated on 9/11 and some weren't--not even a single person left those perished floors.

My favorite and I believe the most important learning I took away from this book is how the "Tunnel" theory works on the hidden brain. The author argues that suicide bombers, Nazis, Jonestown mass suicide and other violent ideologues out there are not influenced so much by religion or a specific ideology but rather by a "need to belong and to impress others." The "Tunnel" theory is about taking a normal person, isolating her from the outside world, sending her hidden brain consistent and focused messages (aka indoctrinating,) and praising her as a "special" and a "chosen" individual worthy of whatever it is that is promised.

The "Tunnel" theory explains how Hitler was able to control a relatively sophisticated and educated society to follow his barbaric ideas. It also explains how nonreligious young Muslims turn into suicide bombers given the right conditions. 

The hidden brain and the "Tunnel" theory also make me understand the nasty political atmosphere here in America better; The religious fanaticism that exists even within neighborhoods of large and diverse cities.

I personally think homeschooling children is a way of using the "Tunnel" theory on their hidden brains, but that's just me.

This book is full of great examples on how the hidden brain works. To a discerning reader, the information is vital in understanding human behavior and how to manipulate it. Read it.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

More Like a Lost Opportunity
My review on Amazon.com

As it turned out, Dan Brown had squandered a golden opportunity to enthrall his readers with this much anticipated Robert Langdon novel. He also managed to mar his reputation as a serious writer and entertainer with the exceedingly bad characters, including Robert Langdon's, with which this book is rife. As much as I enjoyed reading Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I'm afraid Mr. Brown has "lost" me with this one.

With that said, I did enjoy some aspects of the book. I'll start with what I liked first.

Dan Brown is known to load up his books with a ton of research on the subjects in question (i.e. Vatican, Rome and Catholicism in Angels and Demons; Christianity, Paris, Jesus and Knights Templar in The Da Vinci Code) and this book is no exception. I really enjoyed reading about the Masons and their history and rituals. I also got to learn about Noetic Science, which I didn't realize existed prior to reading this book. Brown's descriptions of Washington D.C. and the Capitol were immersive and fascinating in the same measure.

But then we had to deal with characters and plot, which brings us to the portion of this review where I get to tell you what I didn't like about the book.

Aside from the fascinating research, everything else was one bad joke after another. The characters, especially Robert Langdon's, were vapid to put it lightly and sadly inconsequential. For the better half of the book, Langdon was inexplicably balking at concepts that a man with his experience (from Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code) would simply not have. Seriously, most of Robert Langdon's lines were a variation of, "yes, but that doesn't make sense" that's shortly thereafter followed by, "God, now it all makes sense." 

And to add insult to injury, the plot was a mess. It was too predictable, weak and embarrassingly contrived. 

I was really disheartened to see such cheap and amateurish work put out by a writer with such a huge platform. You may enjoy reading this book just for the research that's put into it. But if good character development and believable plots are important to you, The Lost Symbol will end up being lost time you wish you get back.