Scienceblind Audiobook By Andrew Shtulman cover art

Scienceblind

Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong

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Scienceblind

By: Andrew Shtulman
Narrated by: Barry Abrams
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Humans are born to create theories about the world - unfortunately, they're usually wrong, and keep us from understanding the world as it really is. Why do we catch colds? What causes seasons to change? And if you fire a bullet from a gun and drop one from your hand, which bullet hits the ground first? In a pinch, we almost always get these questions wrong. Worse, we regularly misconstrue fundamental qualities of the world around us.

In Scienceblind, cognitive and developmental psychologist Andrew Shtulman shows that the root of our misconceptions lies in the theories about the world we develop as children. They're not only wrong, they close our minds to ideas inconsistent with them, making us unable to learn science later in life. So how do we get the world right? We must dismantle our intuitive theories and rebuild our knowledge from its foundations. The reward won't just be a truer picture of the world, but clearer solutions to many controversies - around vaccines, climate change, or evolution - that plague our politics today.

©2017 Andrew Shtulman (P)2017 Tantor Science History & Philosophy Developmental Psychology Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health History Social Psychology & Interactions Mathematics

Critic reviews

"[A] fascinating, empathetic book.... Mr. Shtulman distills some useful ways to improve science education in the classroom and for the adult public." ( Wall Street Journal)
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(As posted on GoodReads)
(I apparently took a hiatus from the end of October until early December. Time to get back to it…)
This book was totally different than what I expected. Chapters 1 through 10 seemed more like an introduction to the actual meat of the argument/book, and chapter 12 gave the best discussion of evolution that I have ever seen thus far. In the conclusion of the book, the "science blindness" was actually pointed out from the beginning, but some of the assumed conclusions from the first part really need a bit more emphasis!
Overall, I think it was a pretty good book, but it could've been better; and as I say, chapter 12 was excellent, and that alone made the whole book worthwhile! But I still don't know why individuals, ADULT individuals, STILL make themselves blind to reality!

I still don't see why ADULTS blind themselves to reality

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If you are curious about science, this is a very interesting book. If your science level is anything above 7th grade... Then this is just boring.

A bit too simple

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I'll save you some time the one insight from this book is that our childlike intuitive models are not completely over written by what we learn later as scientific theory. otherwise this book uses rhetorical buzzwords such as anti and denier while only sighting the scientific skepticism of his ideological opponents.

one interesting detail between the screeds

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