Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

By: Steven Novella, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Steven Novella

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever.

These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully.

The key to successful critical thinking lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works - and goes wrong; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. Professor Novella tackles these issues and more, exploring how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter.

Along the way, he provides you with a critical toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information. Even though the world is becoming more and more saturated information, you can take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing course.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

Everyone should study this stuff

This would help anyone that doesn't understand what critical thinning is and how the can use it to make better decisions. Should be a mandatory course in school.

Great book for great thinkers

I found it amazing but have to say you've gotta love the topic, if you don't then you should still listen so you know why things happen in life.

Critical skills to have in today's world

Critical thinking is such an important skill set to avoid being manipulated by others.

Scientific literacy

Encourages the reader to be skeptical and to be aware of bias. Great information on scientific literacy. Presented calmly and rationally.

Believe me, but don't believe me!

This was a good course on making sound judgments about the ceaseless noise going on in the world. Scientific skepticism is the name of the game when you want objective and reliable beliefs about the nature of the world.

There are times when he sounds cocky and condescending to a particular observation, but in general he maintains some amount of respect when weighing the merits of a claim.

Definitely recommend to the listener who wants to sharpen their discerning skills while seeking the truth.

A Great Work By An Amazing Thinker

Dr Novella is an excellent teacher and host of The Skeptics Guide to The Universe. Listeners of the podcast, new or old, will enjoy this title.

If you've never thought about thinking, this is an excellent listen. It walks through the basic tenants of critical thinking and skepticism and how to spot them at work (or not at work) in everyday life. Logical fallacies, scientific methods and other aspects of picking apart how thoughts tick are covered.

Some reviewers have said they felt these lectures were just talking points or wanted more from each example.

However I would respond that, fittingly in the spirit of the lectures, it would be helpful to put some of these ideas and skills to practical use yourself and do as Dr Novella says in the last minutes of his last lecture, "check my sources".

Take it upon yourself to take this as a motivating factor to read more about topics that interest you, find opinions, find facts, find controversies and get your brains hands dirty.

And excellent series by an equally excellent thinker. Highly recommended.

A MUST listen for EVERYONE.

Singularly, the most valuable course/book in my Audible library. Should be a required college course.

Great listen

I enjoyed this a lot and will definitely re-listen to it. I wish this was a taught in all schools across the world

You'll be a better thinker for listening to this.

I love learning about the many ways we think about things and arrive at decisions. This book is informative and interesting throughout. I recently read the book Thinking Fast and Slow which parallels many topics and even similar studies referenced here but I enjoyed this course far more.

well worth the time to listen to, good roundup

What did you love best about Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills?

Most of the facts and ideas presented in this course are well known to everyone who has read a bit about or heard from modern "mind science" or "how our brain works" talks. Yet, Novella's roundup is great to listen to, well paced, always interesting and well worth both time and energy spent.
I really enjoyed, for once, a scientist to remind the listener that he, the scientist, does not know it all and will probably not be right all the time. For one time a tutor explains, in detail, that using your own brain and mind means to check the facts and not just play along. A fair approach.

What other book might you compare Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills to and why?

M. Shermer's "The Believing Brain" is quite similar in general approach, but concentrates too much on personal vendetta of the author and/or believe system. There are more comparable titles, but most, in my eyes (ears), suffer from the same basic problem: Scientists that want to make you BELIEVE that they do not need to believe, because they know all the facts for fact, are ... wretched(?).
Most comparable books start of with or repeat sentences like "well, we know for a fact that ..." - and that, exactly, is not scientific thinking. It's religion.
Novella does not fall for this.

What does Professor Steven Novella bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Most books that cover the same topic come up with the ever repeating "experiments" that "scientists" have done, some of which date back to the 1930s or whatever. These experiments as well as the conclusions drawn from them are not that convincing, in setup, target and evidence. Yet, "science" seems unable to come up with new studies, new experiments and new approaches, so most books chew through the same data over and over again, almost in religious circles.
Novella gets around this quite well by just shortly pointing towards those experiments, but explaining thought processes and prejudices in more "today's" contexts, seemingly being still in contact with the real world and not lost in "scientist's drinking clubs". His narration, wit, pointyness (does that word exist?) and personal involvement make you believe he actually means what he says, yet has the distance to always remember you: He might be wrong.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There are a few "funny" side notes that are funny enough to make you giggle or even laugh for a moment, but overall the pace (30 minute lectures) and dedication is just about right to not NEED jokes or horror stories.

Any additional comments?

Can you expect "new insights"? No, if you have ever read anything about modern brain science or mind theory. Are you looking for a sumup of the current "believe" in why we believe and how we err in making up our minds: This is a great approach that won't even harm a religious listener (and those are often the targets of pity for so many other authors/teachers).
Not that I am of that kind anyway :-)