SENSATION

This book, by internationally recognized psychologist Thalma Lobel and drawing from cutting edge research that has never been published for general readers, is the first to show just how shockingly impressionable we are to sensory input, largely without even being aware of it.

Recent bestsellers by Israeli-born psychologists Dan Ariely (who studied with Dr. Lobel as an undergrad) and Daniel Kahneman have explained the ways in which we are all prone to make cognitive errors in a predictable, systematic way. This book, by internationally recognized psychologist Thalma Lobel and drawing from cutting edge research that has never been published for general readers, is the first to show just how shockingly impressionable we are to sensory input, largely without even being aware of it. Warm temperatures make us temporarily friendlier. The color red causes us to perform more poorly on tests. Drawing close dots on a Cartesian graph makes us feel more emotionally connected to our home towns, when we’re then asked about them. Heavy clipboards make the resumes clipped to them seem more impressive. Clean smells promote moral behavior. Like the princess in Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytale “The Princess and the Pea,” we may not always know what disturbs us under the mattress, but we are nonetheless predictably affected.
These triggers surround us every day, like knobs and levers we never use, but that could improve our lives and influence others. These results have direct implications for improving the way we hold business meetings, work in the classroom, go on first dates, organize sports teams, and more. Thalma E. Lobel is an internationally recognized psychologist who is a member of the Executive Board of Tel Aviv University, as well as the Director of the Adler Center for Child Development and Psychopathology there. She has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Tufts University, the University of California at San Diego, and New York University.