The tell

About this book

"What does a yearbook photo have to do with future marital success? Can the CEO's appearance tell you anything about a company's quarterly earnings? In The Tell, psychologist Matthew Hertenstein reveals that our intuition is surprisingly good at using small clues to make big predictions, and shows how we can make better decisions by homing in on the right details. Drawing on rigorous research in psychology and brain science, Hertenstein explains how to hone our powers of observation to increase our predictive capacities. By training ourselves to read facial and bodily cues, we can accurately predict everything from divorce rates to sexual preferences, election results to the likelihood of corporate success. A charming testament to the power of the human mind, The Tell will, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, show us how to notice what we see"-- "Matthew Hertenstein shows that by training ourselves to read facial and bodily cues, we can learn the art of previsioning--the ability to predict the thoughts and behaviors of others in almost every aspect of our lives. Through cutting-edge research and stories, The Tell offers tools to significantly increase our perceptive acumen. This ability is hard-wired via Darwinian natural selection to a large degree; our stone-age minds have developed to allow us to make predictions in a modern world. In contrast to a recent spate of books in behavioral economics and psychology showing where we falter in decision making, The Tell shows us where we succeed, and how we can do better"--