Brains Behaving Badly: A Mostly Accurate Guide to Psychology

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Brains Behaving Badly book cover
Psychology • cognitive bias • neuroscience • satire

Brains Behaving Badly

You are not the boss of your brain. You are its public-relations department.

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A glitchy committeeAncient instincts and modern excuses share the controls.
Psychology without self-helpUnderstanding replaces promises to fix yourself.
Long-form audioA complete 6-hour-plus edition is available.

Meet the organ that invented fire, taxes and denial

Brains Behaving Badly is a darkly funny field guide to the machinery behind human certainty, anxiety, addiction and self-deception. Emotion runs the meeting; reason arrives later to write the minutes.

From cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias to the cult of certainty, the book treats the mind with compassion but not excessive respect. You will not emerge with a perfected brain. You may finally understand why it keeps behaving like this.

Inside the book

  • Cognitive dissonance and post-hoc reasoning
  • Confirmation bias and the comfort of certainty
  • Anxiety, addiction and ancient survival systems
  • Why understanding is more useful than self-blame

For readers who enjoy

  • Psychology without motivational slogans
  • Neuroscience with jokes and humane scepticism
  • Readers who recognise their own rationalisations

You are not the boss of your brain. You are its public-relations department.

Explore beyond the book

Continue with The Plausible Bullshit Theory of Human Consciousness.

Understand the committee in your skull

Choose the book or listen to the complete audio edition free on ElevenReader.

Questions readers ask

Is this a self-help book?

No. It explains why brains misbehave without promising a quick fix or perfect mindset.

What subjects does it cover?

The book explores bias, anxiety, addiction, certainty, emotion and the stories reason tells afterwards.

Is an audiobook available?

Yes. The full audio edition is available on ElevenReader.