Showing titles in Social Psychology & Interactions

The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it.

In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror.

Move over idealised BFFs, glossy gal pals and indestructible work wives. Meet the bad friends. The dangerously romantic school girls of the 1900s. The office gossips of the 1930s. The mum cliques of the 1950s. The angry activists of the 1970s. The coven – women who choose to live together in old age – of the present day. These ‘bad’ friends broke the rules about femininity they didn’t write. Their relationships were controlled, patrolled and judged too intimate, too consuming and in some cases, too powerful.

In today’s digital world, your attention is the most valuable currency—and Big Tech wants every second of it. Your favorite apps, social platforms, streaming services, and online stores aren’t just convenient tools; they are carefully engineered environments designed to influence your behavior, guide your choices, and keep you endlessly scrolling, tapping, reacting, and buying.

Spread through the public in the form of popular stories, ideas can go viral and move markets - whether it's the belief that tech stocks can only go up or that housing prices never fall. Whether true or false, stories like these - transmitted by word of mouth, by the news media, and increasingly by social media - drive the economy by driving our decisions about how and where to invest, how much to spend and save, and more. But despite the obvious importance of such stories, most economists have paid little attention to them. Narrative Economics sets out to change that.

Brought to you by Penguin. More and more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism. More and more people are being diagnosed with mental disorders. Young people are being medicalised for behaviours that might be explained as entirely normal in other parts of the world. Distress has been...

Traumatic experiences leave a “living legacy” of effects that often persist for years and decades after the events are over. Historically, it has always been assumed that retelling the story of what happened would resolve these effects. However, survivors report a different experience...

We know that social connection enriches our lives—so why do we hesitate to connect? “One of those rare books that might actually change your life.” —Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness There is a paradox at the core of human life. We are a highly...

The question of exactly what sex differences exist and whether they have a biological foundation has been one of our culture's favorite enduring discussions. It should. After a baby is born, a parent's first concern is for its physical health. The next concern is its sex. Only in the most modern societies does sex not virtually guarantee the type of future life a new human being will have. Even in modern societies, one's sex usually plays a large role in the path a life follows.

Somewhere out there is a beautiful girl just waiting for a guy like you to talk to her. Unfortunately, most men rely on luck and have no idea how to start an attractive conversation. This book introduces a new proven method to help you talk to women with ease, without pretending to be someone else.

Serial homicide. Stalking. Arson. Gang crime. Who are the people behind these acts of terrible violence? What are their stories? And what is it like to sit opposite them? Dr Gwen Adshead is one of Britain's leading forensic psychiatrists, and she has spent 30 years providing therapy inside secure hospitals and prisons. Whatever her patient's crime, she aims to help them to better know their minds by helping them to articulate their life experience.

What if the way you speak to your partner became the safest place in your relationship — not a source of stress? If you’ve ever thought, “We talk, but it doesn’t feel like we’re hearing each other,” or noticed how one small comment can spiral into silence or tension — you’re not alone. This compassionate guide offers a new way forward: one honest, heartfelt conversation at a time.

Lolcows: The Internet’s Never-Ending Tragedy is the world’s first book on the subject of internet lolcows. The word is a portmanteau of "lol" — laugh out loud and "cow" — someone who is milked. A lolcow is someone that is baited or tricked into responding to trolls thereby “milking” them for amusing reactions. The life of the lolcow is a story of tumultuous lies, deceit, manipulation, emotional breakdowns, crash outs, and financial ruin. The dramatic rise and fall story is familiar to us all.

We know of psychopaths from chilling headlines and stories in the news and movies - from Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, to Hannibal Lecter and Dexter Morgan. As Dr. Kent Kiehl shows, psychopaths can be identified by a checklist of symptoms that includes pathological lying; lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse; grandiose sense of self-worth; manipulation; and failure to accept one’s actions. But why do psychopaths behave the way they do? Is it the result of their environment - how they were raised - or is there a genetic component to their lack of conscience?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Fascinating stories. . . . Boxing ourselves in may be the ultimate way to think outside the box." —Wall Street Journal “I thought David Epstein’s first two books were brilliant, but Inside the Box is his best. I’ll never think about my own work the same way...

We live in the age of the individual. We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture’s image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We’re told that to be this person you just have...

Returning to the topic of her beloved classic bestseller A Return to Love, spiritual guide Marianne Williamson builds on the ideas introduced in that book to lead us toward the light through the inspiring guidance of the mystic Jesus. In A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A...

If you're like most people, you probably believe that your identity is stable. But in fact, your identity is constantly changing - often outside your conscious awareness and sometimes even against your wishes. That fluid identity has a powerful influence over your feelings, beliefs and behaviours. In The Power of Us, psychologists Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel integrate their own cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience and economics to explain what identity really is and show how to harness its dynamic nature.

The title of this audiobook, Can I See Your Hands, refers to one of the key outcomes of this audiobook - being able to tell whether or not people want to cause us harm. To put it very simply, if you can see someone's hands and they are not concealing them, holding a weapon or positioning to strike you, one's levels of trust and confidence can increase. This simple example can serve as a reminder to all of us in many of the complex moments we have to deal with, and difficult decisions we have to make, in everyday life.

Fascinating and provocative, Ariely’s The Truth About Dishonesty is an insightful and brilliantly researched take on cheating, deception and willpower. Internationally bestselling author Ariely pulls no punches when it comes to home truths. Previous titles PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL and THE UPSIDE...