The Mind is Flat: The Shocking Shallowness of Human Psychology

Explore the forces shaping human behaviour

We are often told that our minds are shaped by ‘deep’ factors – subconscious motives or hidden beliefs that can be uncovered through therapy, lab experiments, or brain scanning.

While not entirely incorrect, the brain also improvises – inventing these motives at the moment of decision. Understanding this could help make the world a better place.

On this course, you’ll explore why we take risks, and why we fear them. You’ll learn from top behavioural experts in numerous fields about how our minds are ‘flatter’ than we think, uncovering the influence of marketing and peer behaviour in the process.

Now an award-winning book: The Mind is Flat: The Illusion of Mental Depth and The Improvised Mind (Winner, American Association of Publishers PROSE award for best book in Clinical Psychology, 2019).

No special knowledge or previous experience of studying is required.

• The mind is flat
• The mind is flat
• Why your mind is like a rainbow
• The illusion of mental depth
• The shallow nature of how we decide to buy
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point
• Psychological relativity
• Relativity of the mind
• Relativity of happiness
• Relativity in perception, action and decision making
• Does money make you happy?
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point
• The weight of reason
• The weight of reason
• Money pumps
• Why we make such wildly unstable trade-offs
• Irrationality, rationality, and markets
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point
• The invented self
• The invented self
• The puzzling contrast between lab experiments and real life
• What makes our behaviour make sense?
• How society and our environment shapes our decisions
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point
• Working together
• From I-thinking to we-thinking
• Coordination games
• The psychology of coordination and communication
• Coordination and communication in adults, children and chimps
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point
• Spontaneous order
• Spontaneous order
• Termite society?
• Evolution of communication
• Towards a better world?
• Conclusion: Self-test and talking point