Mindreading: An Investigation Into How We Learn to Love and Lie

The title of this debut by British science journalist O'Connell refers not to clairvoyance, but to the means by which we try to understand what lies behind other people's words and gestures and how we ""respond to them."" For the author, how we quickly get a fix on people and their motives underpins all human communication, empathy and deception. Beginning with attempts in philosophy and cognitive science to articulate our assumptions about such aspects of human nature, O'Connell quickly extends her scope to include our cousins, the primates; she considers extensive evidence as to whether they share our ability to suss each other out and analyzes traits we have in common in order to shed light on our possible evolutionary makeup. While the book sometimes reads like the Ph.D. thesis on the ""Theory of Mind in Chimpanzees"" that O'Connell says ""formed the backbone"" of this effort, she usefully examines differences in how autistic, psychopathic and normal people of various ages read each other, as well as the social behavior of brain-damaged individuals. Anyone interested in our increasingly biologically determined theories of behavior and ethics will benefit from this competent overview of how we think others think. (May)