I enjoy books like this, but they feel like entertaining books without much that is truly useful.
The one thing I love about magic psychology, which is a huge and complex field, is that the things they say are useful, and completely true all over the world.
Magic comes at psychology analysis in a different way, only what works through tried and tested outcomes. A Magician would never say they understand human psychology, and yet reading or listening to Magicians on human psychology has taught me more about it than any number of pop psych books.
I don't know what that means, but I understand human psychology leagues better from magic than I ever did from any book.
I think there are a lot of parallels between the "neuroscience" (quotes intended) in the books and psychology useful to magicians. The books both, for example, discuss both the psychology and the neurological activity surrounding the human brain's desire to find patterns, and rely on them for future "automatic" thought. The well known inability for a person to judge the volume of a container, for example, influences both consumers purchasing a bag of chips and a spectator watching a woman get sawn in half.
There are stories in "How We Decide" that are variations on stories in "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends". "Buyology" anecdotes remind me directly of things I learned from reading Paul Harris.
To be sure, the books I mentioned are written to entertain as well as inform. They're "pop-science", and nobody would suggest that Jonah Lehrer is an authority on neuroscience - but that doesn't detract at all to their utility to anyone who can benefit from understanding how humans - even one's self - think.
The one thing I love about magic psychology, which is a huge and complex field, is that the things they say are useful, and completely true all over the world.
Magic comes at psychology analysis in a different way, only what works through tried and tested outcomes. A Magician would never say they understand human psychology, and yet reading or listening to Magicians on human psychology has taught me more about it than any number of pop psych books.
I don't know what that means, but I understand human psychology leagues better from magic than I ever did from any book.