The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters

“Compelling, and so beautifully written…’The Mind Club’ deftly brings the most up-to-date research about other minds to readers of all backgrounds. It may cause you to think differently about crime and punishment, about business transactions and health care, and even about the upcoming elections. Things might just start looking up.”–The Wall Street Journal

From dogs to gods, the science of understanding mysterious minds—including your own.   

Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club." It’s easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of mind do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds—while incredibly important—are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening and funny.
       The Mind Club explains why we love some animals and eat others, why people debate the existence of God so intensely, how good people can be so cruel, and why robots make such poor lovers.  By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets—animals, machines, comatose people, god—Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matters so much.
         Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.

Daniel M. Wegner was the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James at Harvard University, and recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the 2011 William James Fellow Award of the Association for Psychological Science, and the 2011 Distinguished Scientist Award of the Experimental Social Psychology. He is the author of The Illusion of Conscious Will, among other books. He passed away in July 2013.

Kurt Gray is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he leads the Mind Perception and Morality Lab. He received his BSc from the University of Waterloo and his Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University. A recipient of the Janet Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Research from the Association for Psychological Science, he lives in Chapel Hill.