Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human

by Michael Kaplan, Ellen Kaplan

The New York Times called the Kaplans' look at probability in everyday life, Chances Are, "a dizzying, exhilarating ride." Now they take readers on a new fun-house tour, exploring the burgeoning science of why humans make mistakes.

Our species, it appears, is hardwired to get things wrong in myriad different ways. Why did recipients of a loan offer accept a higher rate of interest when a pretty woman's face was printed on the flyer? Why did one poll on immigration find the most despised aliens were ones from a group that did not exist? What made four of the air force's best pilots fly their planes, in formation, straight into the ground? Why does giving someone power make him more likely to chew with his mouth open and pick his nose? And why is your sister going out with that biker dude?

In fact, our cognitive, logical, and romantic failures may be a fair price for our extraordinary success as a species; they are the necessary cost of our adaptability. Michael and Ellen Kaplan swoop effortlessly across neurochemistry, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines, to answer, with both clarity and wit, the questions above, and larger ones about what it means to be human.

Michael and Ellen Kaplan are mother and son, and coauthors of the bestselling Chances Are: Adventures in Probability. Michael is an award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker who resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. Ellen is an archaeologist and cofounder of the Math Circle, a program for the exploration and enjoyment of mathematics. She is coauthor of The Art of the Infinite: The Pleasures of Mathematics and Out of the Labyrinth: Setting Mathematics Free. She lives in central Massachusetts.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Sociology, Audiobook, Social Science, Evolution

294 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2009

About the author

Michael Kaplan is a writer and filmmaker. He holds an undergraduate and Master's degrees in History from Harvard University. He finished graduate studies at the University of Oxford.

He is the co-author alongside his mother, Ellen Kaplan, of the Bozo Sapiens Why to Err Is Human and Chances Are... Adventures in Probability.
He is currenlt a managing partner of Prospero, (a communications company with government and corporate clients in North America, Europe and Asia).

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book: "Hey, people do illogical stuff sometimes. I'm not going to say why or make a point, but people sure do dumb stuff. Isn't that neat?"

No point to the book. Could have been saved if it had at least been funny, but it wasn't. Just scientific study after study about being illogical without ever really making a point about why, or what it means, or how the studies are related.

[Rod Hilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bozo Sapiens bills itself as a book that is about the science behind the many ways that humans make mistakes. Unfortunately, what it turns out to actually be is a random collection of somewhat interesting stories and studies about human beings and the brain.

None of the chapters in the book are particularly BAD - no claims are made that aren't backed up by some studies. It's not that it is scientifically weak, it is that it is thematically disjoint. The authors jump from random topic to random topic, completely unrelated to each other and only barely related to the book's central thesis.

None of the sections seem to really go in depth. The main point here seems to be breadth, but the net is cast too wide, and the authors frequently left me wondering "what the hell does this have to do with the rest of the book" over and over again.

Particularly disappointing was that this, in virtually every section I found stories, studies, and anecdotes that I am familiar with from having read other, more in-depth books about the subject of that section. This felt like an introduction more than anything else. "Understanding How The Brain Is Kind Of Strange And Interesting: For Dummies."

I can't really recommend it. Each chapter in this book is really better as part of an entire book devoted to the subject.

[Jeff Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love this topic and I've read and I own a dozen books on this topic. I read 20-30 nonfiction science books a year. Cognitive Bias is an amazing topic. Too bad the author simply can't write.

This is the second book I've started and been unable to read by the Kaplans. Dry, disorganized, pretentious. They take 5 sentences when one would do fine. There is no organization of topics, the prose is awful. If you're going to rehash all of the research that's been done on this topic, at least do it coherently and make it interesting. I know other authors have tried and succeeded.

I'll be skipping any future releases from these authors. They make reading about science a chore, when it isn't and doesn't have to be. Please don't let them write another book.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wonderful, wonderful title (in a recent interview I was asked if I'd ever buy a book on the basis of title alone, and I said no, of course not, but I'd forgotten about this one); a shame about the actual book, really. What the Kaplans set out to do is explain the science behind why, individually and as a species, we're capable of such godawful stupidity: in the largest and wealthiest democracy in the world, there are people who in a few weeks' time will vote for someone who thinks scientists are transplanting human brains into mice. No one could more overwhelmingly subscribe to the worthwhileness of their aim; my difficulty was that very often I couldn't follow the Kaplans' arguments. Obviously I suspected (a) this might be my own failing, because I'm stupid, (b) the problem might be that the subject matter is too complex for me, (c) both. But then I recalled how I'd been able to wade through popularizations of far more complex scientific matters -- yer quantum, like -- and came to the conclusion the fault was perhaps not entirely mine. My guess is that people steeped in psychology may not have this problem.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting book on human error and groupness with evolutionary explanations. This book reminds me of Laurence Gonzales' "Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things", covering similar territory from a slightly different perspective using some of the same and some different anecdotes. The book raises some more interesting issues related to learning and friendship that endures despite disparate opinions and worldviews. Bozo Sapiens also shares concepts and anecdotes with Joseph Hallinan's "Why We Make Mistakes".

The Kaplans take a lighter more jocular or witty approach than either Gonzales or Hallinan. I smiled or laughed several times while listening to the narration. Some of the conjectures in the book seem highly speculative to me, but others seem quite reasonable. The authors provide references to support their ideas.

Readers should be aware that the Kaplans seem skeptical of organized religion but cognizant of its value in fostering positive community. Theists, particularly orthodox Latter-day Saints, may find a few paragraphs offensive because they question foundational stories, though I don't believe either author intended for the passages to be overtly polemic.

I am positively impressed by the section subtitled 'I LIKE YOU, BUT NOT YOUR BRAIN' which includes the following:

Our world is a roiling sink of opinion, from what makes a just society to what makes a perfect martini -- so there is obviously no shortage of things we can disagree about.

A good place to start an argument is with a counterexample or a contradiction, and in this case I (Michael is speaking here) happen to know someone who is both. Will Thomas does not share a single political opinion with me: his views are an amalgam or original-meaning constitutionalism, natural law theory, the charter of the National Rifle Association, and Ludwig Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. His support for his position is rigorous, articulate and learned -- and I can't bring myself to agree with any part of them. Yet he is personally one of the best men I know: a true friend, a sincere counselor, and a devoted husband and father. If I were on the run, his would be the door I would knock on. For his part he is willing to tolerate my heterodoxy, even assuring me that, in the current state of doctrine, it is unlikely that I am eternally damned.

Now if we cannot agree, how can we be friends? Or if we are friends, why can we not agree? It is not that neither of us has yet come up with the clincher, the all-conquering logical weapon that will convert the unconvertible. We will never agree, because our views are ultimately inseparable from our identities.

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this book would be considered loosely sociological in nature. It was just terrible. Not only did they openly bash my poor LDS parents (well the whole church in general) but the logic behind the organization of the work was ill formed. There was no real "backbone" to the book. It just meandered around basic complaints about the nature of our own humanity. The anecdotes were ones that any student has heard a thousand times in their sociology or psychology classes. I just didn't see the point of it all. I love humans. I love being human. I love our fallacies. So error is built into humanity. So what? I never felt like I got a good answer out of them. So the heck what? Draw some pointed conclusions for crying out loud.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited when I got this book because it looked so interesting, according to the description. I ended up only being able to read 50 pages of this book. The whole thing was way over my head and was written like abunch of small case histories. None of them flowed together leaving the reader to guess what the author was getting at. I am not going to finish the book. It felt like reading a book for college and not casual reading.

[Jerry Wall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off with funny illustrations and ends up preaching to us.
We turn out to be wise fools because to err is the way it works. We learn from our errors to be different and better, if we pay attention.
. . . why aren't ghosts naked? p.5
Plato stupid or unthinking people have simply forgotten more. p. 7
Any statement is true only to the degree that we have taken pains to disprove it but have so far failed in the attempt. p. 12
Why do we abuse -- and kill -- each other in the name of unprovable abstractions? * * * Why do we let celebrities tell us what to do? p. 16
. . if we are more conscious of the shared mistakes that define our humanity . . . it will not make us right, but could help us to be wrong better. p. 17 !!!!!!
. . . pursue happiness through the one means -- money -- that we already know cannot buy it. p. 21 !!!!!!
[English lord Beckford] had attempted, with skill and determination, to turn cash into happiness -- and failed. p. 26 [turn cash to happiness] !!!!!!!
[individual] who gained little pleasure form her fortune beyond its simple existence and continued growth. * * * There seems to be something functional about using money as the stand-in for worth that causes us to abandon common sense p. 27 !!!!!!!
. . . . competitive display and consumption. . . . p. 61 !!!!!!
. . . how little we notice that which does not concern us. [Wm. James] absentmindedness is simply being present - minded somewhere else. p. 89
[certain] students are being held back, not by a general intimation of inferiority, but by specific beliefs about what some groups are good and bad at. p. 169
'loud mouths' showing off their ignorance. p. 175
Fortune [fate], after all favors the bold but punishes the fearless. p. 186
They [so called primitive people] have what we too often lack, the freedom to enjoy the moment. p. 188
In Jewish Law there is the principle of "theft of mind". p. 245

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why can't we just be rational? There is a common complaint that we humans seem set in our stupid ways for stupid reasons. We are lazy, uninformed, poor judges of what is for our own good. All it will take is clear rational thinking, or so this line of argument goes. Our opponent just doesn't see the world clearly enough but we do.

Nope. As a species, we are very much prone to error. At every level, regardless of socioeconomic or educational background. Some errors are worse than others, and some we can train ourselves to avoid. But in the end, mistakes are literally in our DNA and hardwired into our culture. They are in fact part of what makes us human, able to adapt and adjust to the world around us in unexpected ways.

This is a fine compilation of behavioral economics, some psychology, and lots of gotcha type scenarios. There is not a lot of new material here (has anyone really done anything new after Tversky and Kahneman?), but the book moves decently. I didn't really find a solid theme beyond the title itself: yup, human makes mistakes and that is what makes us human. I was particularly unimpressed with the latter chapters on morals and values, though I recognize that may reflect more my own biases and cognitive distortions than anything. The problem with any of these reductivist or empiricist approaches is that it undermines the author's own claims. Our senses and our brains deceive us, so how can we be sure to trust you when you tell us that very message? It all becomes very circular very quickly, which is perhaps why the authors are content to just sketch out some interesting scenarios and say "yup, it is all a mess."

Read more at https://znovels.blogspot.com/2022/05/...

[Polly Rosenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book touched on concepts I've read in Kahneman and Annie Dukes: how the mind works, how we come to conclusions, how we try to put as many odds in our favor; it made me appreciate the complexities of the mind. It also touched on some ethical and existential conundrums we grapple with in our search to define good and evil. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

[Matt Danner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-presented argument overall. Reminiscent of what I’ve read from Kahneman and others.

[Trent]

Gave up after 20 pages. It was a hot mess of no logical sense. It advertised itself on being witty, but I found no wit in its pages.

[Jonathan P Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent. Almost gave up 100 pages in but glad I did not. Finished it in 3 days during Spring Break.

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

___________________________________
I won this in a GR giveaway, huzzah, huzzah!

Part of the "price" is that they'd like me to review it when I'm done. Since I've tried to review every book I read since joining GR that's a small price to pay.

It'll have to wait, however, until I'm done with Empires and Barbarians.
____________________________________

Bozo Sapiens isn’t bad but it isn’t very interesting. That’s not because the topics aren’t interesting, and it’s not because there aren’t factoids of intriguing information. It’s largely because it is – at best – a superficial treatment of a wide-ranging topic: Why do humans appear to be so ill suited to their environment? Their eyes – their primary sense – deceive them. Their other senses are comparatively dull. Their conscious minds are unaware of 90% of what goes on in the brain, and tendentiously edit what little is perceived. And those unconscious machinations govern some decidedly self-destructive behaviors, ranging from environmental rape to unhealthy eating habits to dysfunctional relationships.

Often I felt like I was watching one of those popular science shows (e.g., “Beakman’s World”) that pop up on cable TV. The book barrages you with a fusillade of facts with little integration – all flash and glitter and whizzing things. This would be a perfect primer if you wanted to become a real-life Cliff, the know-it-all character from “Cheers.” (To be fair to the Kaplans, most of the info derived from them has some basis in reality.)

Two examples illustrate my point. The first is the Kaplan’s treatment of the human mind’s response to complexity. Essentially, we simplify and try to establish patterns that can carry us through without conscious application. They recount the story of a Boeing aircraft that crashes because its crew – thoroughly trained and competent with the previous model – hadn’t integrated the different procedures of the newer aircraft. When an engine catches fire, they responded with the old, ingrained SOP and crash the plane.* Then we get two more anecdotes in a similar vein, and move on to a section on frames of reference.

The second example shows up in the penultimate chapter, “Fresh off the Pleistocene Bus,” where the authors discuss the basis for male-female, long-term relationships and the utility of romantic love. They imply that the difficulty of maintaining relationships rests on the conditions of modern social life: Men and women don’t need each other in the same supportive, complementary way our ancestors did. Once the period of limerence passes and romantic passions are spent, why remain together? Don’t ask me to elaborate; the Kaplans certainly don’t. The next paragraph explores overeating.

Perhaps what irritated me more than the superficial nature of the book was the writing. I’m tired of reading books aimed at an adult, general audience written at a sixth-grade level. If I wanted to read a sixth-grade science book, I’d seek out a sixth-grade science book. It’s frustrating that a book wanting to expand people’s horizons writes down to the lowest common denominator.

And one final, if minor, quibble: The “Notes” section is thorough and interested readers can mine it for further reading but it would have been nice to have a bibliography and/or a “suggested reading” section.

I’ve been swaying back and forth but can’t recommend the book, certainly not for purchase. If you’re at the library or browsing a bookstore shelf, you might kill some time leafing through its chapters or, better, mining the Notes for more focused literature.

* I can’t pass up the opportunity to insert a further example of why all life’s answers can be found in “Star Trek” – In “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” the refitted Enterprise gets caught in a wormhole with an asteroid that’s going to collide with it. Kirk orders Chekov to fire phasers, and Decker countermands the order. It turns out that the new phasers route power through the warp drive; firing them would have blown the ship up. Kirk, a master of the old Enterprise’s capabilities lacked the unconscious familiarity with the new one’s and nearly destroyed the vessel.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, and gave a lot of insight into how the mind worked, and how instinct works against us in many ways. It was a quick read because of the interesting subject matter.

Two complaints: first, some of the examples in the book were to illustrate the principles they were discussing. They asked questions people commonly get "wrong," or at least choose the least logical response. While examples are useful when speaking of something so hazy as how thought works, it got frustrating to be set up to be wrong. That's a mark of a good read in a mystery novel; in a work of nonfiction, it was obnoxious. Espcially because I would've had to have autism to get some of the answers "right." Romanticizing a learning disability? Really?

The second complaint is their reliance on evolutionary psychology's dubious claims regarding gender roles. There's an entire section devoted to the irrationality of love. While I think a book about stupidity would be lacking without it, and I appreciate that earlier sections downplay gender differences and emphasize the need for diversity, that section had me shaking my head. It made me question the authors' intelligence, if they couldn't be trusted to regard evolutionary psychology with the healthy skepticism it deserves. They pay lip service to the idea of evopsych as a pseudoscience, but accept its conclusions, nonetheless.

I had been hoping the cover blurb meant they would debunk evolutionary science. Ah, well. At least it was only a short section.

[Dionisia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free via the Goodreads First Reads program.

Bozo Sapiens was surprisingly dense, but don't let that discourage you! I found it both interesting and engaging. The authors included so many fascinating studies of human behavior and brain function. Our brain is "wired" in such a way that errors are inevitable. So don't beat yourself up so much when you make a mistake or two. It's natural! Two things I found especially interesting were bonnet syndrome and sine-wave speech (I was so intrigued that I had to google it and test it out on myself-very cool!)
Michael and Ellen Kaplan gave me much food for thought but the chapter "Fresh Off the Pleistocene Bus" cost them a star. The main focus of this section was on evolutionary psychology and attempts to explain why our brains have developed they way they have and how this has been advantageous to our species as a whole. While not boring, there were some things that bothered me. Not all human beings are motivated by the urge to procreate. It also bothered me that they completely ignored those people who choose partners, for life or otherwise, that are of the same sex. Can't ignore homosexuality out of convenience! There is no excuse for this. Homosexuality is not new or even exclusive to human beings. It would have been interesting to see how these types of social relationships were explained as a natural part of our evolutionary development.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all - nice title. I probably wouldn't have picked it up if not for the title.

As the subtitle suggests, this is an attempt to explain human behavior, especially DUMB human behavior. Why do we take so many risks? Why do we procrastinate? Overeat? Cheat on spouses? Fall for get-rich-quick schemes? Succumb to mob mentality? There are a lot of reasons, but most of them have to do with the brain.

I enjoyed this book. The part about economics was interesting, in light of the current recession and my own financial bind. It helped me to see money a little differently, in terms of what I am using for and what I really want from my purchases. And the part about nutrition and eating habits was really useful, as I am on a diet - again - and trying to get serious about it this time. Apparently, the normal human condition is hungry. So trying to stuff that down with food every time it surfaces is going to inevitably lead to weight gain, because no matter how much you eat, you will still feel hunger now and then.

I enjoyed the book, and I did learn something from it. One minor quibble is that I would have liked to see an index, but maybe that will be there in the final edition, as I read the advance copy. Overall though, I'm not sure how much this book is as insightful as it wanted to be. It was fun, but I'm not sure it was deep.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

KCPL: due 2009.1219

"The statistician William Cochran complained that scientists always came to him saying, 'I want to do an experiment to show that...' -- a phrase that would have made Bacon shudder. It's like saying, 'We'll have a trial to prove him guilty." Just as the ideal judge presumes innocence (because there are so many more ways to be innocent than guilty), the ideal sceintist should presume that any given explanation is likely to be false -- because there are so many more ways for randomness to act than can strict causation."

This sounds like the author assumes that some events are caused while others are "just random". But this randomness is just the sum of all causes. If we're going to talk about cause, we have to admit it everywhere. If we're going to say that some things just happen randomly, then we have to throw cause out altogether and admit that everything happens randomly.

Earlier, he writes, "It's pointless inventing supernatural powers and beings: once you admit that at least some things just happen, you have lost any sure way to distinguish divine will from pure chance." But this cuts both ways. If some events are random while others are caused, how is one to tell which are which?

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Bozo Sapiens was an interesting book that couldn’t decide how deeply to delve into its subject matter. I felt like the first few chapters were more densely informational, while later chapters gave their focus a superficial treatment. I came away from this with a lot of sound bites and factoids, but I feel a deeper understanding of the human brain has escaped me. I am curious to do further reading on this subject, although I'll admit that evolutionary psychology makes me wary.

The end of the book was very abrupt, much as the transition to this paragraph is. I prefer a little more analysis wrapping up a book with such a sweeping subject.

I think that Bozo Sapiens would be better appreciated as a bag of snacks—have one or two at a time, but don't rush through the whole thing in one sitting. There is interesting information to be had here—just don't expect too much depth. It's brain candy. I think I'll keep this around and refer to it from time to time, but I doubt I'll read through the whole thing again.

My big takeaway is the world isn't what you think. Or it's exactly what you think, depending on how you look at it.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received "Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human" from a Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and though I haven't finished the book yet I wanted to acknowledge this fact. This is my first win, and I was convinced to enter giveaways by my girlfriend who won an advance copy of China Mieville's novel "Kraken". Thanks again, First Reads, and my review will follow soon!
--------------
Having finally finished "Bozo Sapiens", I can now say that I found the book to be informative, entertaining, and insightful. Covering subjects from cognition, optical illusions, social interaction, and the early days of humanity as a species, among much more, the Kaplan team manages to put together a book that reads like a long series of short essays that follow a loose framework of topics. As a fairly slow, often unmotivated reader, I found it difficult to finally finish the book, but that did not affect my enjoyment of the material. I would recommend it to patient readers interested in a broad survey of human intelligence and folly, and though I read it exclusively I would also recommend it as a "bathroom reader"-type book.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the inside of the book jacket: “ Our species, it appears is hardwired to get things wrong in a myriad of different ways. Why did recipients of a loan offer accept a higher interest rate when a pretty woman’s face was printed on the flyer? Why did one poll on immigration find that the most despised foreigners were ones from a group that did not exist? What made four ace fighter pilots frly their planes, in formation, straight into the ground? Why does giving someone power make him more likely to chew with his mouth open and pick his nose? And why is your sister going out with a biker dude? In fact, our cognitive, logical and romantic failures may be the price for our extraordinary success as a species — they are the necessary cost of our adaptability. Bozo Sapiens swoops effortlessly across neurobiology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines, to answer, with both clarity and with, the questionsabover — and larger ones about what it means to be human.” Can’t argue with that... Note check out their other book: Chances Are... : Adventures in Probability.

[Michael T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected this to be a bit of a Darwin Awards style diversion. Just a bit of fun, & a chance to make fun of stupid people. Turns out it was much more deep and insightful in terms of how we, as humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens), perceive, and more to the point, mis-perceive the world around us. How the human brain, in order to function effectively, actually limits our perceptions in order to make the most probable guesses as to which course of action will result in survival, or at least benefits, like mating opportunities. Why, for instance, we are apparently hardwired to prefer anecdotal evidence ("I know this guy who knew this guy who . . . ") to much more reliable & probable statistical analysis. How our brains have separate parts which work on the same problem at once & then essentially, compare, contrast & combine. How we rely on memory systems which are inherently unreliable, except in that the fictions we come up with & call our memories are MUCH more meaningful to us than the relatively insignificant details of what actually happened. If any of this sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend this one. Peace. MTK.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't entirely all in on this book. I found this book at the Dollar Tree and was excited that I found a book with a cool title and subject matter. For only a dollar, I'm not disappointed. It took me a while to finish the book out of obligation, not from enjoyment. It's still hard to say the book was bad. I like books that talk about decision making and what influences it. Trump is mentioned in this book, but no spoilers. I digress. I did enjoy the things that they mentioned when it came to error. I don't believe it should've taken that long to get to that point, but the examples were not only filled with humor but also with studies to back them up. I do like this quote when it comes to wearing different "hats" from engineering to management. "What is the mystic power of the management hat? It makes the wearer subscribe to a different theory of probability." In every industry that word gets thrown around a lot it goes on to explain why those decisions get messed up with that type of thinking. I won't elaborate on that, but if you have a dollar, try to find it in the Dollar Tree.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bozo Sapiens was very fun. With "Why to Err is Human" in the title I expected something a little more technical and negative toward humanity. It wasn't like that at all. Instead of giving technical explanations about how the brain works, the book gave me lots of everyday scenarios about why we do the things we do. I especially enjoyed a section early on in the book that talked about how seeing and hearing are believing; I am going to butcher the delivery, but it cited a study in which a subject watched a video of the back of their head while in virtual reality goggles and actually felt and believed they were having and out of body experience. It also mentioned how when we listen to music we hear things like "hold me closer Tony Danza" while Elton John croons Tiny Dancer, and we don't think twice about the lyrics not making sense, we just sing along.

This book was a fun, easy read. I felt like it got a little bit repetitive at times, but beside that I enjoyed it and learned a lo from it about why we behave the way we do.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not the light read I was expecting. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it - I did and I learned a great deal - but I was expecting the Daily Show and instead got tuned into CNN. Once I got used to the tone it turned out to be very interesting.

One of the main things I took away from the book was that the way humans interpret the world depends a great deal on the way they expect the world to behave. From the way we parse visual information to the way we find meaning in the most random of occurrences, what we expect colors what we perceive.

The Kaplans do an excellent job of explaining why chemicals, instincts, and wiring cause our brains to work the way they do. The goal is not to change behavior, but to allow the reader to understand why such behavior is taking place so he can plan for it. I feel smarter already...or at least, more secure in my stupidity.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not the easy layman's romp through evolutionary and social psychology that its cover promises it to be- Bozo Sapiens is cluttered with obscure references to philosophy, history, and literature, which only tangentially enrich the arguments they are intended to support. I think the Kaplans tried to cover too many topics using too many examples- I personally would have preferred a book that investigated these issues in a more vertical than horizontal manner.


That being said..... Bozo Sapiens is chock-full of interesting tidbits and theories on why people make such inane, and often dangerous, mistakes. The book seemed to grow more cohesive as I read on (and learned how to parse the ornamental anecdotes from the expository meat) and when I reached the final page, I was actually sad to see the end of it.
I'm thinking my rating might improve with a second reading...

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read.

I knew this book was going to be a must-read not even halfway through the second chapter; it's that good. The writing is engaging, with lots of humor. The topics are fascinating and the angles they approach them from novel and interesting. There wasn't a single sentence in this book that I didn't like, and I learned quite a bit.

The reading level may be a bit high for a general audience, unfortunately, but if you can parse the various scientific names for parts of the brain as simply "this is a part of the brain", you should do okay.

That second chapter, by the way, is the most must-read part of the book. At least everyone in the United States at this point in time should be studying it.

I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads' First Reads program.

[Ryan Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book on a Goodreads giveaway (thank you Goodreads!). This book was interesting but could have been put together better. In certain parts of the book, especially the first couple of chapters, the authors seemed to jump around quite a bit. They covered a lot of ground but it had some flow issues.

On the plus side, I did learn several interesting facts about how the brain works and how humans interact with each other. The authors did a very good job with giving examples and boiling down the huge amount of studies into something very readable. Well written and, once you get past the choppy first section, a very interesting read. These authors have written another book about probability that I am going to check out.

[Jesse Winslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to pick through this book, but it was well worth it. Maybe, since I've recently read a couple books on a similar subject, I did not find this book to be too revealing. I did absolutely love the chapter On of Us. What a timely bit of writing! This chapter alone should be read by everyone in the world. It summarizes something I've been thinking for a long time, that anyone can put differences aside, no matter how great, for the common good. Not an earth-shattering concept, but it is this Us vs Them mentality that may soon be the end of the human race.

A worthwhile book with many great examples, scientific study references, and whatnot, highly recommended.

[Diane Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

The science of stupidity!
There is much in this book that can be applied to everyday life to make yourself less prone to error, but much also that shows that error is inevitable. I loved the chapters exploring our nature through comparisons with other primates and sociological studies. The first few chapters that dealt more with philosophical issues and logical fallicies were more difficult to slog through, but well worth it for the treaures to come! I would recommend leading off with a more accessible topic for a first chapter however, my guess is that many will simply set the book aside-in error!