The Tell: The Little Clues That Reveal Big Truths about Who We Are - Hardcover

Hertenstein, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 046503165X ISBN 13: 9780465031658

Publisher: Basic Books, 2013

Synopsis

Every day we make predictions based on limited information, in business and at home. Will this company's stock performance continue? Will the job candidate I just interviewed be a good employee? What kind of adult will my child grow up to be? We tend to dismiss our predictive minds as prone to bias and mistakes, but in The Tell, psychologist Matthew Hertenstein reveals that our intuition is surprisingly good at using small clues to make big predictions, and shows how we can make better decisions by homing in on the right details.

Just as expert poker players use their opponents' tells to see through their bluffs, Hertenstein shows that we can likewise train ourselves to read physical cues to significantly increase our predictive acumen. By looking for certain clues, we can accurately call everything from election results to the likelihood of marital success, IQ scores to sexual orientation—even from flimsy evidence, such as an old yearbook photo or a silent one-minute video. Moreover, by understanding how people read our body language, we can adjust our own behavior so as to ace our next job interview or tip the dating scales in our favor.

Drawing on rigorous research in psychology and brain science, Hertenstein shows us how to hone our powers of observation to increase our predictive capacities. A charming testament to the power of the human mind, The Tell will, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, show us how to notice what we see.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew Hertenstein received his PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and is on the faculty at DePauw University. He has been featured on the Today Show, ABC News, NPR, and in the New York Times, The Economist, and The Guardian (UK). Hertenstein lives in Greencastle, Indiana, with his wife, Margo, and his ever-curious son, Isaac.

Reviews

Drawing on poker's concept of the tell, a mannerism that can yield clues to an opponent's cards, and numerous behavioral studies in which he has been involved, psychologist Hertenstein has produced a study that is lively and engaging yet unremarkable in its conclusion that both environment and genes influence our decision-making. For example, he reveals that we're able to predict ways an adult might behave by looking at early tells; thus, infants that have insecure attachments to their parents are more likely than those with secure attachments to develop some form of psychopathology later. Various studies have found that facial features can be useful in predicting aggression or lying and cheating: In carefully controlled studies, men with wider faces were three times more willing to lie than slim-faced men. In dating, women choose men based on facial attractiveness, symmetry, smell, and masculinity, while men choose women who are attractive, youthful, and display signs of fertility. Despite the inconclusiveness of evolutionary psychology, Hertenstein offers much material to ponder and suggests that we embrace the power of these tools for helping us predict behavior, though he also cautions against an overly prescriptive use of these approaches, which could lead to harmful cultural stereotypes. 31 b&w figures. (Nov.)

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 046503165X
• ISBN 13: 9780465031658
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288