Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things

QUIRKOLOGY: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things. Richard Wiseman. Basic Books, New York, 2007. 336 pp. Hardcover, $26. Noted (and refreshingly quirky) psychologist Richard Wiseman (professor of the public understanding of science, University of Hertfordshire) draws on research in psychology, including his own, to expose the truth behind life's little oddities and absurdities.

Chapter topics include: What your date of birth really says about you (the new science of chronopsychology), trusting everyone but always cutting the cards (the psychology of lying and deception), believing six impossible things before breakfast, making up your mind (the strange science of decision making), the scientific search for the world's funniest joke (the psychology of humor), sinner or saint? (the psychology of when we help or hinder), and the pace of life (and "other quirkological oddities").

COPYRIGHT 2007 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning