Riveted

The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe

By: Jim Davies

Narrated by: Matthew Josdal

Professor Jim Davies's fascinating and highly accessible book, Riveted, reveals the evolutionary underpinnings of why we find things compelling.

What we like and don't like is almost always determined by subconscious forces, and when we try to consciously predict our own preferences we're often wrong. In one study of speed dating, people were asked what kinds of partners they found attractive. When the results came back, the participants' answers before the exercise had no correlation with who they actually found attractive in person! We are beginning to understand just how much the brain makes our decisions for us: we are rewarded with a rush of pleasure when we detect patterns, as the brain thinks we've discovered something significant; the mind urges us to linger on the news channel or rubberneck an accident in case it might pick up important survival information; it even pushes us to pick up People magazine in order to find out about changes in the social structure.

Drawing on work from philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, economics, computer science, and biology, Davies offers a comprehensive explanation to show that in spite of the differences between the many things that we find compelling, they have similar effects on our minds and brains.

©2014 Jim Davies (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A fascinating analysis of what we find fascinating." ( Kirkus)

awesome book!!!!

Tai Lopez introduced this book to me recently.
This book covers the things I did not know I didn't know. 😂😂😂
Thanks Jim Davies.

great insights a d bountifil of fascinating concet

doesnt read like a textilbook.
you'll be ao surprised yoy did, even if you have thought what hes speaking of? well cited research and support ing studies.

Fun and excellent listen!

Great book. Touches on a lot of interest topics that relate to how your brain perceives the world. Wish it would go into a little bit more detail on some of those subjects as they are very interesting.