The author starts with a disclaimer that the science within is questionable but that's like starting a biography by saying all characters are fictional. Most experiments cited are sadly debunked and bad science in general but they read well and come to pleasing conclusions. ( )

A very amusing look into the quirkiness of human psychology. ( )

An amusing look at some of the stranger science, where scientists study things that are, well, quirky. Does country music have a high correlation with suicide? How fast do people walk in different cities? What is the world's funniest joke? While some of these are questionable in their methods in terms of efficacy (and a few in terms of ethics - watching people walk while you time them and they are unaware they are part of a science experiment? Problematic, to say the least). He also traces the history of "quirkology" back to what may be its origins (at least as far back as Aristotle). Some of the findings are not surprising; some of them are, well, let's just say, unbelievable. The interesting thing is, the ones that are the hardest to believe are the ones he gives the fewest details on how the studies were done, making them at least somewhat suspect. The book would have gotten an extra half star except he kept referring to things as "scientifically proven", outing himself as someone who is not in one of the hard sciences, since hard scientists do not use that phrase unironically. Overall, a fun and quick read. ( )

Uno stacco simpatico tra altre letture.
Rischia di essere leggermente lungo, ma è tutto sommato abbastanza curioso. Molto utile l'ultimo capitoletto finale per sconfiggere il blablaismo.
La cosa piu' bella e che apre il cuore è che c'e' qualcuno che puo' permettersi di studiare queste cose e, sopratutto, trova qualcuno che lo paga per farlo. ( )

This is a book detailing various experiements carried out by the author (and his teams) and other people over the years about a number of aspects of everyday life. There are accounts of experiements on people's helpfulness, impact of dates of birth on people's personality and attitudes to life and other people, writing a successful personal ad and so on. While most of the content was reasonably interesting, I don't think it was particularly memorable. ( )