A Mind of its Own - How your brain distorts and deceives by Cordelia Fine

Icon Books

Reviewed by RITA CARTER

This review first appeared in The Daily Mail

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

Your brain is like a good spin-doctor - it makes sure that reality is filtered through a rose-coloured prism  so you never get to  see the ghastly truth. In particular it protects you from ugly rumours about yourself - manipulating your perceptions to present your prospects in the most optimistic way, massaging evidence to cast you in the best light and selecting your memories to protect your self image . We fail a test, and the brain assures that we just didn’t make the effort. He fails the same test and we smugly note that he must be thick. Or rather, you do, because, of course, my brain insists that I would never be guilty of such a double standard. .

As well as polishing your halo,  your brain tirelessly labours to protect you from  facts that might undermine your beliefs. It discounts evidence that goes against your prejudices, and amplifies that which supports them. This pigheaded loyalty to old ideas sometimes works for our benefit. It is the basis of the placebo effect ( we expect a drug to work so it does) and if we think we are wonderful we tend to live up to it. One study found that school children who were given IQ test results which falsely boosted their scores later  did better in genuine tests than classmates who had not previously been duped .   But it can also delay progress and lead us to make disastrous mistakes. Doctors, for example,  went on x-raying pregnant women for nearly a quarter of a century after one maverick physician produced evidence to show that radiation endangered unborn babies. Throughout that time the medical profession as a whole convinced itself  the evidence was unsound, mainly because it went against prevailing opinion.

“A Mind of Its Own” is cringe-making and sometimes disillusioning.  Happily, though,  your brain will swiftly forget the bits that reflect less than kindly on you, and the take-away message is that by protecting your ego, your brain not only keeps you happy, but also helps to keep you healthy

SO WHAT’S NEW?

Nothing much. Most of the information comes from psychological studies dating back 10 years or more, many of which have already been written about quite widely. That’s not really the point though – rather it is that the book pulls the evidence together in a particularly neat and  revealing way.
 
HOW READER FRIENDLY IS IT?

Totally. Cordelia Fine writes clearly and elegantly and even made this reader laugh out loud (in public).

BOFFIN-RATING
The only quibble I have with this book is that  it talks about the brain   in the way that some men talk of their penises – as a wayward appendage, to be fond of and grateful to, but not really responsible for. In fact, your brain  is you, as mine is me. This, though,  is nitpicking – its very difficult to write about the brain any other way. In fact ,  I have probably done the same here. Happily, though, my brain won’t let on. 

© Rita Carter 19XX/2007 - ritacarter.co.uk