Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives
by Richard Wiseman
Pan Macmillan, £9.99, ISBN 978-0-230-70215-8
In this eminently readable survey, Wiseman introduces the general reader to a range of intriguing findings in psychology by outlining his own diverse areas of research. The difference between this and most psychology books is explained in the introduction: “unlike the vast majority of psychological research, these studies have something quirky about them. Some use mainstream methods to investigate unusual topics. Others use unusual methods to investigate mainstream topics.”
The first chapter counters the fatuities of astrology with the new science of chronopsychology: “What does your date of birth really say about you?” In a chapter focussing on superstition, Wiseman emphasizes that “superstitious beliefs are not just about the harmless touching of wood or crossing of fingers. Instead, beliefs can affect house prices, the number of people injured and killed in road accidents, abortion rates, and monthly death statistics, and can even force hospitals to waste significant amounts of funding on unnecessary patient care.”
The late Vic Tandy once gave a fascinating talk to Skeptics in the Pub about the role of infrasound in provoking unusual experiences which are then given supernatural interpretations. Wiseman has pursued this line of research by means of an experimental concert with an infrasound component, and he is not the only one to think there’s something in this. Another team’s research into sacred experiences “suggests that people who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by the [organ] pipes.”
There are also chapters on deception, decision-making, humour and altruism. The epilogue provides antidotes to boring dinner parties, in the form of a list of factoids from the book, selected by guests at experimental dinner parties organized by the author. The top factoid is a quirkology classic: “People would rather wear a sweater that has been dropped in dog faeces and not washed, than one that has been dry-cleaned but used to belong to a mass-murderer.” Nowt so queer as folk.
