Renowned psychologists describe the five most useful insights from
social psychology that will help make you "wise" wise about why we
behave the way we do, and wise about how to use that knowledge to
understand others and change ourselves for the better.
When faced with a challenge, we often turn to those we trust for words
of wisdom. Friends, relatives, and colleagues: someone with the best
advice about how to boost sales, the most useful insights into raising
children, or the sharpest take on a political issue. In The Wisest One
in the Room, renowned social psychologists Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross
ask: Why? What do these people know? What are the foundations of their
wisdom? And, as professors and researchers who specialize in the study
of human behavior, they wonder: What general principles of human
psychology are they drawing on to reach these conclusions?
They find that wisdom, unlike intelligence, demands some insight into
people--their hopes, fears, passions, and drives. It's true for the
executive running a Fortune 500 company, the candidate seeking public
office, the artist trying to create work that will speak to the ages, or
the single parent trying to get a child through the tumultuous
adolescent years. To be wise, they discover, one must be psych-wise when
dealing with everyday challenges.
In The Wisest One in the Room Gilovich and Ross show that to answer
any kind of behavioral question, it is essential to understand the
details--especially the hidden and subtle details--of the situational
forces acting upon us. Understanding these forces is the key to becoming
wiser in the way we understand the people and events we encounter, and
wiser in the way we deal with the challenges that are sure to come our
way. With the lessons gleaned here, you can learn the key to becoming
"the wisest one in the room."
