Quirkology

Wiseman, Richard. Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things. New York: Macmillan. 2007. Print

First Sentences:

I have long been fascinated with the quirky side of human behavior.

When I was a psychology undergraduate one of my first experiments involved standing for hours at London's King's Crossing railroad station look for people meeting partners who had just gotten off the train. The moment they locked in a passionate embrace, I would walk up to them, trigger a hidden stopwatch in my pocket, and ask "Excuse me. Do you mind taking part in a psychological experiment? How many seconds have passed since I said the words, 'Excuse me?'"

After querying about fifty such couples, I discovered that people greatly underestimate the passing of time when they are in love, or, as Albert Einstein once said, 'Sit with a beautiful woman for an hour and it seems like a minute, sit on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour -- that's relativity.'

Description:

Seems only logical that after last week's recommendation of a book about fictional "brain thieves" (who insert probes into people's brains, then released them into the world so their activities could be studied) that I should offer a follow-up of a real life psychologist who actually earns his livelihood studying how we humans behave in everyday activities. 

Of course, his scientific, carefully-constructed studies lead to solid data and therefore logical conclusions about all sorts of quirky, superstitious, strange and unusual patters of behavior. The author, Richard Wiseman, calls his field of research "Quirkology," and presents numerous serious, but wacky behavioral studies of these curiosities in his book, Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Everyday Things.

For many years, Wiseman and like-minded scientists have conducted research into every corner of behavior observing thousands of people worldwide in controlled situations. 

I have examined the telltale signs that give away a liar, explored how our personalities are shaped by month of birth, uncovered the secret science behind speed dating and personal ads, and investigated what a sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of the mind...measured the amount of horn-honking when cars become stalled at traffic lights...discovered whether suicide rates are related to the amount of country music played on national radio...and proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Friday the thirteenth is bad for your health.

Less you think this a frivolous waste of time for him to study and you to read about, let me assure you that Wiseman is dead serious about his work. He pursues his interesting studies with meticulous attention to detail to filter out any chance of corrupting the data and prejudicing the conclusions. 

The work is serious science, and much of it has important implications for the way in which we live our lives and structure our society.

Each chapter is a different series of studies about a question regarding the psychology behind incidents in ordinary life, such as "Can we distinguish between real and fake smiles?" "Does your birthday actually have any influence on the luck you experience in your life?" Can we tell when a person is lying or telling the truth?" and "Are there words to use in personal ads that will provide a positive response?" Wiseman looks at other studies done in this area and then creates his own live experiments to test new hypotheses about behavior. When you are done with the chapter, you cannot help but agree with whatever conclusions he reaches because the data has been taken from such a large sample audience and the tests controlled so carefully to prevent misinterpretation.

Let's take a look at some of the studies conducted and described in Quirkology by Wiseman and other scientists in this field:

• Does the position of planets actually affect personality and key events? (He decides to study similarities in "Time Twins," those individuals born at exactly the same moment, an also gauge the accuracy of astrological predictions);

• Is there evidence that when you are born influences the luck you fell you receive in your life? (Extensive studies in Australia and Europe show that the people who describe themselves as lucky were born in the warmer summer months);

• Can the way you trace a "Q" on your forehead determine whether you  are a high self-monitor (the center of attention, easily adaptable) or low  self-monitor (guided by inner feelings, tell fewer lies)?

• Can people tell when someone is lying on television? (Wiseman's films an actor on television talking about his favorite movie, then films a second interview with the actor describing a different movies as his favorite. Thirty thousand people phoned in their opinion about which was his true favorite, but results showed they did no better in their choice than if they flipped a coin);

• Can people be lead to believe they have experienced an event that they did not participate in? (Wiseman shows how the false-memory is easily created in people, including Ronald Reagan who told a story to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society about when the Medal was awarded to a pilot who chose to go down with his plane and a crew member who could not escape. Unfortunately, that event never happened and was really the plot from a movie that had become embedded in Reagan's memory as a factual event);

• Can subliminal suggestion inserted into movies or television shows actually influence whether you want to buy a specific product or behave in a prescribed manner?

• Does where you live influence your name? (Examining U.S. census records "uncovered an overrepresention of people called Florence living in Florida, George in Georgia, Kenneth in Kentucky, and Virgil in Virginia...Helen in St. Helen...more Charleses in St. Charles, [and] more Thomases in St. Thomas");

• What's the ideal percentage of talk about "self vs. other" to follow at speed dating tables to increase your chances of receiving a phone number of the person to whom you are talking?

• Is there one joke that is considered the funniest? (This idea was based on a Monty Python sketch where the world's funniest joke makes everyone die of laughter and is therefore banned for warfare. Wiseman constructs a website to solicit favorite jokes and evaluate the humorousness of submitted jokes. He receives over 40,000 jokes and 350,000 evaluations. And yes, he does identify a consensus funniest joke, as well as the jokes most popular with women, Germans, scientists, and Dave Barry fans.)

One incredibly weird study after another is fascinatingly researched, constructed, tested, and analyzed with results that are both surprising and wonderful. They are short and wryly funny, with many studies and examples offered for each quirky topic. Every study makes you learn more about how we respond to each other and the world around us with all our beliefs, intelligence, and idiosyncrasies. 

It is a book that will make you think in completely different ways, and offers a plethora of topics to mystify and delight everyone you tell them to. Of course no one will believe that you can tell whether a person is lying just by listening for specific words, but in Quirkology, you now have the scientific proof to back your wild statements. And what a pleasure that is!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Wansink, Brian. Mindless Eating  

Fascinating experiments constructed at the Cornell laboratory to discover unknown influences on ordinary people that determine why and how much we eat. Fascinatingly wonderful and will change how you eat, guaranteed! (previously reviewed here)