Kurt Gray

discusses

The Mind Club:
Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters

in conversation with DANIEL GILBERT

This event includes a book signing

Date

Mar
29
Tuesday
March 29, 2016
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes psychology professors KURT GRAY and DANIEL GILBERT for a discussion of Gray's book The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters, co-authored with Daniel M. Wegner.

About The Mind Club

Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club." It's easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of mind do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds—while incredibly important—are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening and funny. The Mind Club explains why we love some animals and eat others, why people debate the existence of God so intensely, how good people can be so cruel, and why robots make such poor lovers.

By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets—animals, machines, comatose people, god—Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matters so much.

Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.

Praise

“Daniel Wegner was among the world’s cleverest, wittiest, and most beloved social psychologists. The Mind Club is genuinely novel, with brilliantly conceived studies on some of the deepest issues the mind of man can ponder.” —Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought and How the Mind Works

“Daniel Wegner’s final book is a masterpiece made ever more precious by his untimely death. Thankfully, his brilliance and wit live on—in these pages, and in his collaborator and protégé, Kurt Gray, who presents their ideas with clarity, depth, and style. The Mind Club is not to be missed.” —Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert
Daniel Gilbert

Daniel Gilbert

Daniel Gilbert, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, has won numerous awards for his research and teaching.  His popular book, Stumbling on Happiness, spent 6 months on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into more than 35 languages and sold over a million copies worldwide, and was awarded the Royal Society’s General Book Prize for best science book of the year. He hosted and co-wrote the award-winning PBS television series This Emotional Life, the premiere of which was seen by more than 10 million viewers. In the last few years he has appeared in a series of television commercials meant to help Americans overcome the psychological obstacles to saving for retirement. He is a contributor to TIME, the New York Times, and NPR's All Things Considered, and in 2014 Science named him one of the world’s 50 most-followed scientists on social media. In 2017 he was named one of The 50 Most Influential Living Psychologists in the World. His TED talks have been seen more than 26 million times and remain among the most popular of all time.

Kurt Gray
Kurt Gray

Kurt Gray

Kurt Gray is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he leads the Mind Perception and Morality Lab. He received his BSc from the University of Waterloo and his Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University. A recipient of the Janet Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Research from the Association for Psychological Science, he lives in Chapel Hill.

Photo Credit: Amy Stern

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

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