Black and White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World

Nominated as a NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB must-read by curators ADAM GRANT, SUSAN CAIN, DANIEL PINK and MALCOLM GLADWELL

'Fascinating, important and entirely convincing.' SIR PHILIP PULLMAN

'Essential insights into the character of human choice and decision-making.' ROBERT CIALDINI, bestselling author of Influence

A groundbreaking and timely book about how evolutionary biology can explain our black-and-white brains, and a lesson in how we can escape the pitfalls of binary thinking.

We isolate ourselves from people who are not the same as us.

We refuse to listen to the other side of the argument.

We think in black and white - them or us, left or right, Leave or Remain - and dangerous possibilities arise. The Alt Right. ISIS. Brexit. Trump.

Our hardwired binary brains have led to increasingly polarized beliefs and a rising tide of religious intolerance and political extremism. But by understanding our evolutionary programming we can learn how to see the grey areas and make rational sense of a complex world. In this alarm call for a better future, Oxford University psychologist Dr Kevin Dutton argues for a world in which we make subtler - and far better - decisions.

'Kevin Dutton is a Special Forces style psychologist. Daring. Original. All-action. No nonsense.' SIR RANULPH FIENNES