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Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Wiseman
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.69
You Save: $7.31 (46%)
New (36) Used (13) from $6.61
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 98079
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0465010237
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9780465010233
ASIN: 0465010237
Publication Date: September 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For over twenty years, psychologist Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life. In Quirkology, he navigates the oddities of human behavior, explaining the tell-tale signs that give away a liar, the secret science behind speed-dating and personal ads, and what a person’s sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of his or her mind—all along paying tribute to others who have carried out similarly weird and wonderful work. Wiseman’s research has involved secretly observing people as they go about their daily business, conducting unusual experiments in art exhibitions and music concerts, and even staging fake seances in allegedly haunted buildings. With thousands of research subjects from all over the world, including enamored couples, unwitting pedestrians, and guileless dinner guests, Wiseman presents a fun, clever, and unexpected picture of the human mind.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 One of the best books I read in the last few years September 21, 2008
Murillo Xavier
This is an awesome book. If you like me is a curious person and would like to understand the reason behind what people do and how they think, this is your book.
Although the author could treat this as a classical social psychology study and show thousands of theories, he discusses the experiments in a very simple way and motivate people to dig further into the mysteries of the daily behavior.
I really loved it.
 Accuracy Dubious July 5, 2008
Invictus (Brisbane)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Accuracy Dubious
The most disastrous war in history began, as most educated people would know, in September 1939. Professor Wiseman, a social science professor, appears to have no understanding of the events preceding it.
As the professor's book "Quirkology" embarrassingly discloses at pages 47 and 48, he knows little about, and has not bothered to ascertain, the events which led to the war. According to him it broke out in September 1938, when the Germans, Wiseman believes, attacked and overwhelmed Czechoslovak forces.
The German army first went into Czechoslovakia on October 1, 1938, under the Munich agreement, made the previous day between Daladier, Mussolini, Hitler and Chamberlain.Then on March 14 and 15, 1939, firstly in anticipation of - and then under - an agreement made with the Czechs on March 15, the Germans began to occupy further parts of Czechoslovakia.
Both these incursions were unresisted; the Germans neither attacked nor overwhelmed Czech forces. The threats made by Hitler did the trick.
Of course, this is not a book about history, but such misrepresentations do not inspire confidence that the author has taken meticulous care elsewhere in the work.
INVICTUS
Very Interesting Book March 31, 2008
Adrianna Ramos (MT USA)
An extremely interesting book.
This book disproves a few myths and answers many questions that i've wondered about.
Fun to read, but a little insubstantial. February 4, 2008
David M. Giltinan (San Francisco)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Definitely one of those books which promised more hilarity in the bookstore than it was able to deliver at home. I think Richard Wiseman would dearly love to have us believe that he is a brilliantly zany individual, but most of this material never rises above being moderately interesting, and the deliberate 'quirkiness' begins to feel forced after a while.
A couple of chapters fail completely in my view. Pretty much all the material related to "what your birth date really says about you" is fluff. There's not much substance in the chapter on superstition and people's belief in the paranormal either. Deconstructing and explaining humor is a risky proposition at best - most attempts I've read have been excruciatingly dull, and singularly devoid of humor. Wiseman does as well as can be expected; the chapter on humor is readable, but far too long at 50 pages.
More successful were the chapters on how to tell if people are lying, on decision-making (including how to write a personal ad that will succeed with men/women), and altruism. I thought these were well-done: the underlying science seemed more firmly grounded, findings were more concrete, and well-presented.
To the author's credit - his writing style throughout the entire book (even in the less successful chapters) is fluent and readable. Though there is that slightly forced zaniness ("let the quirkology begin"), whose charm fades before the book finishes.
In the end, a mixed bag. What rating does one give to a book where one thinks 50% of the material is excellent, 50% forgettable?
Answer: 3.5 stars, rounded to 4, because it was fun to read.
Very readable January 21, 2008
Bertram Wooster (Centerville, KY)
Casting about to read books in the vein of "Freakanomics", I stumbled across this one. Always entertaining and occasionally witty, it provides considerable insights into the mechanics of human nature and interactions.
The experiments, results and "lessons learnt" will certainly give you pause.
At the very least, you will go to your next cocktail party bristling with an arsenal of conversation starters.
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