Audiobook10 hours
Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong
Written by Andrew Shtulman
Narrated by Barry Abrams
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
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.
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.
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Reviews for Scienceblind
Rating: 4.033333333333333 out of 5 stars
4/5
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Somewhat interesting but inconsequential. Also guilty of the thing it complains about.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author describes the prevalence of intuitive science theories we develop as we grow up and how these utilitarian understandings of the environment work at some level, but lead to serious problem in understanding our world. These theories linger into adulthood, making it difficult for individuals to comprehend (and maybe solve) problems they encounter around them. How we "catch colds", determine "weight", understand our ancestry, etc., are influenced by these non-science theories. Fairly good read, though I would have liked ti see more examples of how these intuitive theories have led and continue to lead humans down faulty paths.