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  • Quirkology

  • The Curious Science of Everyday Lives
  • By: Richard Wiseman
  • Narrated by: Peter Noble
  • Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,860 ratings)

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Quirkology

By: Richard Wiseman
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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Summary

For over 20 years, psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life.

In Quirkology, he navigates the backwaters of human behavior, discovering the telltale signs that give away a liar, the secret science behind speed dating and personal ads, and what a person's sense of humour reveals about the innermost workings of their mind - all along paying tribute to others who have carried out similarly weird and wonderful work.

Wiseman's research has involved secretly observing people as they go about their daily business, conducting unusual experiments in art exhibitions and music concerts, and even staging fake seances in allegedly haunted buildings.

With thousands of research subjects from all over the world, including enamoured couples, unwitting pedestrians, and guileless dinner guests, Wiseman presents a fun, clever, and unexpected picture of the human mind.

©2007 Richard Wiseman (P)2015 Audible, Ltd
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What listeners say about Quirkology

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  • Overall
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Entertaining and insightful

I loved this book and listened to it in only 2 sessions. The experiments are quirky and fascinating. The writing and reading makes the book so easy to read and clear to understand. I can't wait to find out if Richard Wiseman wrote more books!

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Very enjoyable

Held my interest all the way through and a good narrator. Experiments on that capture the imagination.

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Some interesting research and dubious conclusions

I found that, too often, Wiseman attributes cause to correlation. For example, while some people might lie about their date of birth, I believe it much more likely that those born on significant dates would gravitate towards vocations related to that date because they are constantly reminded of it. Indeed, he highlights the tendency towards bias associated with birth date in a later experiment.

Nevertheless, the book is interesting and worth a listen.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Think… tart

Really fascinating collection of information, and until the point the topic moves to chat up lines and socially sexually uninhibited women “think… tart” I really enjoyed it. The line and delivery really jarred for me.

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Fantastic

I found this absolutely enthralling, the narration also keeps pace with the information being provided, there was nothing I did not like throughout this reading.
I would recommend this to anyone wanting to expand there knowledge of little known pieces of nuggets.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just enough to keep you listening...

I don't remember feeling there was much new stuff there, in terms of the conclusions drawn from various experiments and anecdotes.

I also felt that the jump to stating things as facts was too often made without enough proof, leaving me questioning the validity of those statements.

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29 people found this helpful

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well read and so many interesting experiments

loved it, lots of fascinating new ways to look at out everyday lives and more

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Information and information

Lots of stuff we didn't know.

Very enjoyable though. Id highly recommended it. Some food for thought

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very enjoyable

great content and very interesting. i am looking to get another book of his right now after finishing this one. i recommend going to his site mentioned at the end.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating insight into bizarre psychology

Richard Wiseman is well known for his nationwide experiments, so it hardly comes as a surprise that this books explore some of these mass investigations.

One of Wiseman's conducts included interviewing famous journalist Robin Day and Hollywood actor Lesley Nielsen and allowing the public to figure out what statements they made were truths and lies. Surprisingly, most people were able to guess correctly, with most guessing far easily via listening to their voices on radio.

From subliminal messages to the funniest jokes in the world - it's worth listening just for the amazing quirky scientific tidbits.

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