Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want

Nicholas Epley

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Feb 11, 2014 - Psychology - 272 pages

You are a mind reader, born with an extraordinary ability to understand what others think, feel, believe, want, and know. It’s a sixth sense you use every day, in every personal and professional relationship you have. At its best, this ability allows you to achieve the most important goal in almost any life: connecting, deeply and intimately and honestly, to other human beings. At its worst, it is a source of misunderstanding and unnecessary conflict, leading to damaged relationships and broken dreams.

How good are you at knowing the minds of others? How well can you guess what others think of you, know who really likes you, or tell when someone is lying? How well do you really understand the minds of those closest to you, from your spouse to your kids to your best friends? Do you really know what your coworkers, employees, competitors, or clients want?

In this illuminating exploration of one of the great mysteries of the human mind, University of Chicago psychologist Nicholas Epley introduces us to what scientists have learned about our ability to understand the most complicated puzzle on the planet—other people—and the surprising mistakes we so routinely make. Why are we sometimes blind to the minds of others, treating them like objects or animals? Why do we sometimes talk to our cars, or the stars, as if there is a mind that can hear us? Why do we so routinely believe that others think, feel, and want what we do when, in fact, they do not? And why do we believe we understand our spouses, family, and friends so much better than we actually do? Mindwise will not turn other people into open books, but it will give you the wisdom to revolutionize how you think about them—and yourself. 

From the Hardcover edition.

What people are saying

Review: Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want

User Review  - Tim Kadlec - Goodreads

This was a humbling book to read. Epley walks through all the ways we "think" we understand where others are coming from when in reality we understand very little. The research mentioned is a bit light in parts, but overall Mindwise does a great job of discussing a very important topic.

Review: Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want

User Review  - Goodreads

This book is accessible to diverse groups of people and I would say everyone because it is well written but made for the general population to understand as well. If everyone in the world would pick ...

About the author

Nicholas Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has written for The New York Times and published more than fifty articles in two dozen journals in his field. He was named a “professor to watch” by the Financial Times, is the winner of the 2008 Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association. He lives in Chicago. 

From the Hardcover edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want
• Author: Nicholas Epley
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014
• ISBN: 0385351674, 9780385351676
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Organizational Behavior; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / Interpersonal Relations