Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs, and Bad Ideas

Why do we hold on to bad ideas? Who is in control of what we know? What will intelligence mean in the future? Writing for general readers, McRae, a science communicator for Australia's National Science and Technology Center, explains how our innate propensity for forming social networks, a key survival capacity for our species, sometimes clouds our ability to reason. He looks at how the brain evolved to help us survive as cohesive communities and how this capacity has led to some negative aspects, such as group think, but has also led to the development of the scientific method and science as a social enterprise. Annotation 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)