The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and SaveOur Lives - Kindle edition by Vedantam, Shankar. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

This is the basis for the current U. S. presidential race in America where an political unknown is swaying many people using the secret hidden biases of the subconscious mind to win in 2016. People are being led without them even realizing what is happening. Most do not even know that this is what is guiding their decisions or that they are biased in any way. This is an excellent primer that shows by example and explains in detail the step by step method used by politicos. This is a must read for every voter before they vote...

If you read a lot of books in this genre, then this is likely to be a retread of older studies for you. If not, then you might enjoy it. It's an easy read, and there's a lot of fascinating material.That said, the author's own "hidden" biases are on full display as well. His chapter on racist bias immediately and definitively sets about showing that racism exists - the author relaying his own personal experiences with it as a minority - and then explores why. In fact, he has a couple of chapters that deal with racism in a fairly masterful way. Those are worth a read. However, in the chapter on sexism, he spends a few pages rambling on about how there's no real way to establish in any useful form that sexism is behind any individual incident that involves a woman. He eventually did get it together and pull out of his spiral to discuss sexism as experienced by trans individuals, but not without the disclaimer that a lot of that discrimination might be attributable to bias against alternative sexuality. Having read substantial amounts of - yes, scientific - as well as less rigorous studies into sexism, I found that chapter sloppy and poorly assembled. It was clearly not the priority for him that racism was. And being dismissive of 51% of the global population is probably a poor strategy for success. I'd have more respect for his book if he simply said, "I'm going to focus on racism since it's where my interest lies," and then not addressed sexism at all. Fair enough - we tend to speak to what we know. But to throw in a sloppy, poorly assembled chapter on sexism, and then act as if it could barely be quantified as a societal force - despite the massive crowds of people globally saying otherwise - felt insulting and dismissive. Definitely a turn-off.All in all, I can't give this a huge thumbs up or down. It's okay. But if you're only going to read one book in this genre, I'd recommend "Mistakes were Made But Not By Me" or "Dataclysm."

This is a fascinating exploration of that aspect or function of the brain that has been variously labeled the "sub-conscious" or the "id," but which seems to be closer to the surface than was ever suspected. This "hidden brain" (a function of the frontal and temporal areas of the cerebral cortex) seems to relate to perception in a manner comparable to cerebellar function in motor activiity. It learns then executes rubrics based upon experience from the earliest childhood, then allows us to function in a largely automatic way and increases the speed and agility of our decisions and actions. It also seems to underlie many of our irrational decisions and unexplained prejudices.The writing is excellent and easy to follow. Many examples and case studies clarify the surprising points made. This is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the irrational aspects of politics, social interactions or finance.

I'd been a regular listener of the weekly show on NPR and then the podcast.Reading the book after already being a devotee, I didn't expect to be surprised.Well ... surprise! It was a brilliant representation of very new material to me but in the same enlightened professionalism I'd come to expect from the show. As a fellow (former) journalist, I tip my hat to this remarkable social science journalist and storyteller!

This was a very enjoyable read, as most people are not consciously rascist or sexist, but they do have hidden biases of which they are not even aware. I just wish there was more than one chapter about sex bias; the author does first-person interviews with a man-to-woman transgender, and also a woman-to-man transgender working at the same place in the same scientific field, and compares their experiences before and after the gender change. That's one of the most compelling and credible things I've ever read about sex bias in the workplace, and I do wish he included more examples or expanded to more chapters.Unfortunately, this book was also repetitive about race bias. There are several chapters about that, but it does seem that the author only tested for bias on Americans and only on black or white people. He didn't test for bias against any other races or by any other races. That makes this book somewhat incomplete.Also, I have my own bias: I think that Americans make everything about race, especially after Obama. In the current news, Meghan Markle just got engaged to Prince Harry, and the big deal in the tabloids is that she's half African-American. So, does race matter or does it not? If it's not supposed to be important, then why is it being reported at all? Maybe that's why racial bias is so prevalent here--it's not important, except when it is, and then it's a big deal.