Feeling Smart: Why Our Emotions Are More Rational Than We Think

by Eyal Winter

Which is smarter -- your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice?

In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead to such bad decisions, why hasn't evolution long since made emotions irrelevant? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more optimal outcomes.

In fact, as Winter discovers, there is often logic in emotion, and emotion in logic. For instance, many mutually beneficial commitments -- such as marriage, or being a member of a team -- are only possible when underscored by emotion rather than deliberate thought. The difference between pleasurable music and bad noise is mathematically precise; yet it is also something we feel at an instinctive level. And even though people are usually overconfident -- how can we all be above average? -- we often benefit from our arrogance.

Feeling Smart brings together game theory, evolution, and behavioral science to produce a surprising and very persuasive defense of how we think, even when we don't.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, Ebooks

Audio CD

First published December 30, 2014

Reviews

[Ela Ünler]

Orjinal dilinde okumayı tercih ederdim. Duygularla ilgili çok farklı bir pencere açmamasına rağmen paylaşılan araştırmalar veri sağlama açısından çok değerli. Yazarın ekonomi alanından bir akademisyen olması da kitapın çerçevesini bu yönde çiziyor özellikle ilgi alanı davranış ekonomisi olanlara tavsiye ederim.

[Racheli Zusiman]

ספר מעניין מאוד, שעוסק רבות בכלכלה ותורת המשחקים, למרות שזה לא כ"כ מצופה לפי שמו. למדתי דברים חדשים. היה חסר לי איזשהו קו מקשר בין כל הפרקים בספר.

[Rita Arens]

Some contradictions to the other books I've read on emotions, but the more I learn about current neuroscience, the more questions I have about what exactly it is that makes us human. This book contributed to that. Good read.

[Bilal Said Parlakoğlu]

Duyguların rasyonellik ile çeliştiğini düşünürdüm bu kitabı okuyana kadar.

[Andre Hermanto]

Good:
* Contains interesting facts and studies, which actually changed my mind. I thought that being angry is almost completely useless in the modern world, but this book managed to convince me otherwise.

Bad:
* The narrative is difficult to read.

[Sienna]

Really enjoyed this book. More of a review when I have more time...

[Funda Guzer]

Son zamanlarda okuduğum en iyi kitaplardan. Yeniden okunası *****

[Tsai, Ya-Hsin]

I was misled by the introduction and thought this is a book about how to utilize your emotions. And that’s an ansolute wrong assumption. This is book is more like a research paper with a lot of point of views backed up by many trials and tests. It’s still insteresting if you’d like to know what’s the logic behind those seemingly irrational decisions or moves.

[David]

Ideas from the book:
* By understanding the messages our emotions are sending us, we can make better decisions and navigate the world more effectively.
* Our feelings can change the outcome of our decisions, even when the information remains the same.
* Our choices are influenced by the emotional context in which they are made.

[Jennifer]

Not what I expected. It was a little repetitive on how people use emotions in their day-to-day life.

[Ezgi]

Behavioral economics için bir giriş kitabı diyebilirim. Alanla ilgilenene çok basit ve problematiklere yüzeysel yaklaşılmış gibi gelebilir. Ama başlangıç için iyi bir seçim olur.

[Carolina Olvera]

Me encanto! Algunos capítulos son mejores que otros, pero me encantan los libros que tienen data en ellos. Aprendí demasiado

[John]

Controlling emotions, especially anger, is not easy. It requires analysis, memory, intuition, & skill, but it does pay off.

Major elements of personalities are determined in the 1st 10 years after birth of our lives, increasing # of studies are revealing that our personalities are fashioned even earlier than that-but in the 1st 9 months preceding it.

Job applicants may 1 day be asked to provide saliva samples along with their resumes. Home renters could similarly ask potential tenants for their saliva samples, & insurance companies could use genetic profiles to calculate insurance premiums. Those with attractive DNA profiles getting the best jobs, & those with ugly profiles being forced to work in more unappealing occupations, or suffering unemployment.

In most men the index finger is shorter than the ring finger. Index finger, followed by the length of your ring finger, and calculate their ratio. The smaller the ratio the greater the concentration of testosterone in the body. Not necessarily always true but it does occur in the vast majority of cases in a statistically significant manner.

[Rébecca Mathieu]

An interesting foray into the why/how of our emotions. A tad too much economical examples for my taste, but otherwise a very good in explaining how emotions are essential to our life, and not just logic.

[Gail Park]

Not what I expected. A little too cerebral for me.

[Charity U]

An intriguing look at emotions from a logical perspective. Very interesting and educational!

[Emmanuelle Ide]

A very insightful and interesting book on the importance of emotions and where they come from ! I truly loved reading and learning from Eyal Winter