The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills

by Jesse Singal Narrated by Jesse Singal

Overview

This program is read by the author.

An investigative journalist exposes the many holes in today's bestselling behavioral science, and argues that the trendy, TED-Talk-friendly psychological interventions that are so in vogue at the moment will never be enough to truly address social injustice and inequality.

With their viral TED talks, bestselling books, and counter-intuitive remedies for complicated problems, psychologists and other social scientists have become the reigning thinkers of our time. Grit and ¿power posing¿ promised to help overcome entrenched inequalities in schools and the workplace; the Army spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a positive psychology intervention geared at preventing PTSD in its combat soldiers; and the implicit association test swept the nation on the strength of the claim that it can reveal unconscious biases and reduce racism in police departments and human resources departments.

But what if much of the science underlying these blockbuster ideas is dubious or fallacious? What if Americans' longstanding preference for simplistic self-help platitudes is exerting a pernicious influence on the way behavioral science is communicated and even funded, leading respected academics and the media astray?

In The Quick Fix, Jesse Singal examines the most influential ideas of recent decades and the shaky science that supports them. He begins with the California legislator who introduced self-esteem into classrooms around the country in the 1980s and the Princeton political scientist who warned of an epidemic of youthful ¿superpredators¿ in the 1990s. In both cases, a much-touted idea had little basis in reality, but had a massive impact. Turning toward the explosive popularity of 21st-century social psychology, Singal examines the misleading appeal of entertaining lab results and critiques the idea that subtle unconscious cues shape our behavior. As he shows, today's popular behavioral science emphasizes repairing, improving, and optimizing individuals rather than truly understanding and confronting the larger structural forces that drive social ills.

Like Anand Giridharadas's Winners Take All, The Quick Fix is a fresh and powerful indictment of the thought leaders and influencers who cut corners as they sell the public half-baked solutions to problems that deserve more serious treatment.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Singal’s analysis is . . . a quick fix for readers who want to be more enlightened and thoughtful consumers of psychological science. It is also a bracing reminder that social realms in which there are Big Problems—such as crime, education and poverty—are beyond the reach of fads and quick fixes, no matter how seductive." —Sally Satel, The Wall Street Journal

"Singal has a skeptic’s keen eye for spotting shoddy claims, while remaining balanced in his assessments, and a knack for explaining complex statistical and methodological issues." —Aaron Kheriaty, First Things

"Engaging and persuasive . . . [Singal] wisely counsels us to resist the appeal of the monocausal explanation, the oversimplified narrative." —Michael M. Rosen, National Review

"Jesse Singal is America’s best social science journalist. In this book he shows that addressing social problems is hard, there is no quick fix, and we psychologists will have to be more careful in our work and restrained in our claims. Singal focuses on social psychology, but this book is a great read for anyone who wants to understand and ameliorate social problems." —Jonathan Haidt, professor at New York University—Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind, and coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind

"Meticulously investigated yet accessible . . . [Singal] takes the reader on a fascinating march through years of pop-psychology, revealing layer after layer of issues with concepts we’ve come to know — some of which are still quite popular." —Pamela B. Paresky, Psychology Today

"An overdue and very well-executed look at how many of the problems in social psychology run deeper than just the replication crisis. [The Quick Fix] covers topics of self-help books, posing and power, superpredators, bias tests, and much more." —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

"The Quick Fix is a great read, well-written in a lively style and aimed at general audiences . . . Even as a psychologist familiar with the replication crisis there are some deep dives here into a lot of important areas." —Christopher J. Ferguson, Psychology Today

“In order to explain the allure of fad psychology, Singal . . . presents this well-researched book that explains how half-baked behavioral science spreads . . . Readers can approach this book a chapter at a time, and overall, they will see Singal’s big picture of how ideas about self-esteem, bias tests, positive psychology, and other fads put limitations on everyone’s ability to dig deeper into these matters. This book will appeal to readers who want to understand the complexity of psychological issues.” —Jennifer Adams, Booklist

"Jesse Singal is one of the smartest, fairest, and most skeptical writers around. He is somehow able to delve into complex matters, give every side its due, and still render judgment. And—most amazing of all—he's an awful lot of fun to read." —Jonathan Chait, columnist at New York magazine and author of Audacity and The Big Con

"Combining dry humor with forensic research, The Quick Fix is an absorbing account of how media-friendly but largely spurious self-help ideas came to dominate our thinking about society's most complex problems. Yet it left me feeling unexpectedly inspired: once you've been disabused of the notion that changing the world might be simple, you're better equipped for the messy, reality-based challenge of actually making a difference." —Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Kirkus Reviews

2021-01-26
A journalist questions the shoddy research and pseudoscientific claims of “popular behavioral science.”

With their promises of improving individuals’ lives, recent thought leaders hyping quick-fix behavioral science concepts have gained undeserved recognition. Even though their findings are misleading, writes New York magazine contributing writer Singal, they are still “frequently being adopted by schools, corporations, and nonprofits eager to embrace the Next Big Thing to come out of the labs and lecture halls of Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania.” Sadly, “this replication crisis has cast a giant shadow over the entire field of psychology.” In his debut book, the author explores a variety of relevant topics: the positive thinking and self-esteem craze that took root with The Power of Positive Thinking, I’m OK—You’re OK, and other similar books, which explored “the principle that people have deep psychic wounds that need to be addressed before they can fully actualize themselves”; Princeton political scientist John DiIulio’s faulty theory of “superpredators,” which suggested that certain juvenile criminals (most often young Black teens) are impulsively and remorselessly willing to commit violent crimes; what body language and posture can reveal about assertiveness and how “power posing” can elevate external and internal signals of confidence. Though Singal’s broad-reaching exposé is well documented, the less-than-compelling narrative fails to convey the significance of the issues. The author builds his often pedantic arguments on long stretches of accumulated research findings, citing seemingly every applicable study (more rigorous editing would have helped). Singal rightly points out the virtues of Anand Giridharadas’ Winners Take All (2018). However, whereas that book was a masterful takedown of the philanthropic elite that showcased the author’s sharp storytelling skills, this book lacks a similarly engaging voice. The result is a well-researched but long-winded exercise.

An insightful yet plodding critique of faddish trends.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177480244
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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