• The Wisest One in the Room

  • How You Can Benefit from Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights
  • By: Thomas Gilovich, Lee Ross
  • Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
  • Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (142 ratings)

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The Wisest One in the Room  By  cover art

The Wisest One in the Room

By: Thomas Gilovich, Lee Ross
Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
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Publisher's summary

Renowned psychologists describe the most useful insights from social psychology that can help make you "wise" - wise about why people behave the way they do, and wise about how to use that knowledge in understanding and influencing the people in your life.

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 an ongoing conflict.

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 begin by noting 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 maintain, one must be psych-wise.

©2015 Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross (P)2015 Recorded Books

What listeners say about The Wisest One in the Room

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Not Really About Wisdom. Nothing New Here.

"The Wisest One in the Room" is a rehash of almost every interesting finding of social psychology research. No new research is presented. All the authors have done is to attempt to reposition knowledge of these findings as wisdom. The attempt almost completely fails, and quite glaringly so when it tries to transition from the anecdote at the beginning of the book about Eisenhower and D-Day to the main body of the book, not one bit of which has any explanatory power about the introductory anecdote.

If one has not read much in social psychology, then this book might be as good as any of several others to give an overview of some of the most interesting findings of the field. It's not actually a bad book. It's just an unnecessary one.

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12 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

For liberals only

Overall, I enjoyed the book until the last 90 minutes. The author focused on climate change and if you do not believe in climate change, you are a science denier and you do not have rational thought. I do not believe it is helpful once you start labeling one side and calling them unwise. I do believe in climate change, however, I do not feel calling the other side names is extremely helpful when debating the issue.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good coaching but too political at the end

Worth the investment but the 10th chapter felt more like a sermon and “if you disagree you just aren’t as smart as me” statement. Could have easily used the same subject as a case study for influencing people instead of talking down to them.

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    1 out of 5 stars

Climate Hoax

A 10 hours and six minute book. Only to get 50 minutes from the end to find out the real agenda in this book (Climate Hoax)

Just for the record, I do believe in climate change God‘s version

 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

There’s not enough dirt people in this world to stop this from happening.

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  • RJ
  • 11-05-23

Not what I hoped for.

I was hoping for inspiration but the information was presented in such a dry manner it was a challenge to finish the book.

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Boring

Picked the wrong book to follow up Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci. Book is not only boring rehash of well-known basic social psychology but the voice of the narrator is horribly boring. Great title but disappointing content.

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VERY disappointed in climate change coverage

Plenty of interesting, engaging, and research-based findings on behavioural psychology presented in a thought-provoking way.
VERY disappointed that it devolves into the authors pushing their opinion on climate change being settled science and anthropogenic. This despite this being far outside their field of expertise. And they contradict a fundamental tenant of scientific exploration that is central to the ideas shared in this book: science is never "settled". Science is meant to challenge itself, especially its most firmly held ideas. We are constantly gaining new learning and experience that should be carefully considered and used to challenge our current views of the world around us.

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    2 out of 5 stars

too facile. too much attention to experiments

I was disappointed. I expected a more friendly approach. Also they claimed too much for experiments about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. opening story promised a more insightful and palatable tale. They do not address the inadequacies of drawing conclusions from university students who participate in their trials.

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