why do smart people do dumb things?

How could the thief disguise himself by pulling pantyhose over his face, but then fail to remove it when security arrived and he tried to pretend to be a shopper?

How could the wildlife volunteer at the Colorado Prairie Wild Animal Refuge stick her arm in the Siberian tiger’s cage to demonstrate to visitors how gentle the animal was?

Both of these stories won honorable mentions in the Darwin Awards, a popular website that raises the question: Why do smart people do dumb things?

This delightful romp through the maze of human fallibility should be sent to every CEO of the Fortune 500 companies, along with all the members of Congress.
Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of Why People Believe Weird Things.

In Blind Spots, psychologist Madeleine Van Hecke explains why we mess up and shows how our blunders are not simple instances of us being “so stupid!” Van Hecke attributes them to blind spots, blips of the mind that occur when some of our greatest assets as thinkers backfire and become our biggest liabilities.

Blind Spots devotes a chapter to each of ten blind spots that plague even the smartest individuals. Full of funny, poignant stories about human foibles, Blind Spots gives us insights into how to improve our own social and political lives while giving us fresh slants into the minds of people who are poles apart from ourselves.

“Behind each stupid mistake, each wrong-headed viewpoint, is a person every bit as rational as we think ourselves to be. Madeleine’s book allows us to see ourselves more clearly and assess others more tolerantly. I have no reservations about wholeheartedly recommending this book.” —Wendy Northcutt, best-selling author of the Darwin Awards and creator of DarwinAwards.com.

Madeleine Van Hecke, Ph.D. (Elmhurst,IL) is a licensed clinical psychologist, a former professor of psychology at North Central College in Naperville, IL, and the lead author of The Brain Advantage: Become a More Effective Business Leader Using the Latest Brain Research (Prometheus Books, 2010). She lectures at Common Ground (Deerfield, IL) and is a speaker, trainer, and workshop leader for Open Arms Seminars.

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Blind Spots argues for reflection, but Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink argues for the power of intuition—”thinking without thinking.” Who’s right?
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What can I do when OTHER people’s blind spots drive ME crazy?

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