This was recommended during a reading group discussion, maybe I should say that I was pointed toward this book during a discussion as I don’t know if he ever read it or not.  Anyway,  I started out very excited and that stayed with me until maybe 2/3rds when my interest waned. I moved to another book (a group read for October) and came back to this one because I did want to finish. 

How Minds Change:
The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion
by David McRaney
Read by author – 9h 33m
Rating – 6 / careers (?) 
(both read and listened)

Well that explains it – Audible has this categorized as a “career success” book and when I got to the end of it I realized that’s exactly what it was.  That said, the book starts out great with topics like are street canvassing and Westboro and arguing, sometimes theoretical other times getting source material like a journalist. – right to the end though, there are parts which are quite good.

In a way, I think the title itself is misleading because by the end McRaney is talking about working with clients and a couple of therapists who organized what he, McRaney, was thinking into a “technique” to use with clients and wrote a paper about it – (Philipp Schmid and Cornelia Betsch)

So the book is actually for psychologists to use in getting their clients to think the “right” way.  Nope – I don’t like this. Clients are vulnerable and need to be treated with respect. Clients pay psychologists to direct their thinking.  I’m not going to be “directing the discussion towards …” with my friends! The rating got lowered.