Product Description

A psychologist and best-selling author gives us a myth-busting response to the self-help movement, with tips and tricks to improve your life that come straight from the scientific community.

Richard Wiseman has been troubled by the realization that the self-help industry often promotes exercises that destroy motivation, damage relationships, and reduce creativity: the opposite of everything it promises. Now, in 59 Seconds, he fights back, bringing together the diverse scientific advice that can help you change your life in under a minute, and guides you toward becoming more decisive, more imaginative, more engaged, and altogether more happy.

From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting the new science of “rapid change” and, with clarity and infectious enthusiasm, describes how these quirky, sometimes counterintuitive techniques can be effortlessly incorporated into your everyday life. Or, as he likes to say: “Think a little, change a lot.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94495 in Books
• Published on: 2009-12-29
• Released on: 2009-12-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

About the Author
Richard Wiseman is Britain's only professor for the Public Understanding of Psychology and is the author of the bestselling Quirkology. He is the psychologist most frequently quoted by the British media.

Customer Reviews

Please drink a cup of coffee before reading this review
This is an easy and enjoyable book to read - the kind that you can dip in and out of, picking up interesting tips along the way. For each topic, Wiseman discusses a number of research experiments (both his own and ones done by others) and then gives a number of concrete suggestions on how you can quickly implement these findings (although 59 seconds is often a stretch). And why the title of this review? Because one of the things I learned from reading this book was the fact that if you've just had a caffeinated drink, you are far more likely to be swayed by someone else's opinion!

The book is based on the premise that quick techniques can sometimes be surprisingly effective at helping us to change and explains (based on research studies) which ones work and which don't. Some examples that I found interesting were:
- a simple five day writing exercise that can lift your mood for several weeks
- how to create the perfect plan to achieve almost any goal
- how spending money on experiences is a far more effective way to make yourself happy than spending it on things
- how punching a pillow to relieve anger actually increases your anger, while sitting quietly and thinking about how you benefited from the experience has the opposite effect
- conversational techniques that can build instant rapport on a first date
- exercises to stimulate the unconscious mind that lead to better decision making
- simple tests to assess your child's emotional intelligence.

Like Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives, the book also has lots of facts that seem to have been included just because they're interesting. So we learn that people with bumper stickers are more aggressive drivers, that having a photo of a baby in your wallet significantly increases the chance of it being returned if you lose it, that your initials can influence your life expectancy and that adding plants to an office increases the number of creative ideas that employees will have.

The chapter list gives a good indication of the subjects covered in the book:
1. Happiness
2. Persuasion
3. Motivation
4. Creativity
5. Attraction
6. Stress
7. Relationships
8. Decision Making
9. Parenting
10. Personality

It's No Secret - Science Provides The Best Self-Help
The book '59 Seconds - Think a Little, Change a Lot' by Richard Wiseman is very appealing. In terms of appearance, it weights in at a solid 358 pages, including the detailed footnotes at the end - has a bright, attractive cover, and not that dissimilar in construction to his earlier work 'Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things'.

Peel back that bright cover and you'll discover '59 Seconds' even more in common with 'Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things'. Dr Wiseman has become rather good at putting as much information as he possibly can in these two most recent books - whenever I've talked about his research to others, I usually just recommend 'Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things' rather than tracking down papers he's authored (of which there's quite a few, from psychology of deception to parapsychology to personality and luck and so forth).

I originally thought that this was going to be more like two of his earlier works - which, funnily enough, are self-help books. Since this is a book that challenges many of the claims of the self-help genre, I guess the best way to beat the fruits is to join them and be tastier and more nutritious.

There's 'The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles', which investigates how both good and bad luck result from measurable habits; for example, lucky people, by expecting good luck, might expend more effort in their endeavours, resulting in more success, reinforcing their belief in good luck. There is also `Did You Spot the Gorilla? : How to Recognise the Hidden Opportunities in Your Life', which applies the metaphor for those priceless ideas and opportunities - which seem obvious in hindsight, but which most people miss - to one's business life and home.

It's the structure of the book which might throw you. This isn't `The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles' or 'Did You Spot the Gorilla? : How to Recognise the Hidden Opportunities in Your Life' (nor, thankfully, is it 'The Secret' or similar pseudoscientific clap-trap). Whilst every research discussion goes for no more than five to six pages, there's a `59 Seconds or Less' tip that features nearly every ten pages or so, mixed in with some quizzes, some charts to fill in, a few `4x15 second tips' in text boxes... all neatly divided into chapters. It's a practical book that you are encouraged to write in, much like his earlier two self-help books - but it's a lot thicker. I guess the format of a self-help book is one I associate more with a less solid-non-fiction research book appearance - but you certainly can't say that you're not getting your money's worth with all the scientific findings and activities stacked in bunches throughout.

Of course, being the Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology, he has a lot of opportunities to conduct tests and trial - many of these appear in the book. `Romance Made Simple' in Chapter Seven, Relationships, drew upon the research done via his 'Quirkology' website, a large-scale online survey that examined the psychology of romantic gestures. Another, in Chapter Two, Persuasion, tested how much money people donate to a `perfect charity box', was done in conjunction with Borders bookstores across the UK. Dr Wiseman regularly pops out new quizzes, activities and studies online - I wouldn't be surprised if many listeners have also enjoyed his kind of supernatural version of the children's book Where's Wally? (or `Where's Richard') which was played last month via Twitter and his blog, to try out the psychic abilities of his readers.

When reading '59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot', I quite enjoyed discovering how many little tips for happiness or encouraging socialisation have been recognised by myself or others in casual discussion and are either agreed or disagreed upon by scientific research - for example - episode 115 of the Geologic podcast talked about how socialising whilst walking a dog seemed so much easier. There in Chapter Six on stress, with the heading `Paws for Thought', research shows that:

`Most researchers acknowledge that one of the most important factors centers on the social benefits of owning a dog. A large body of research has demonstrated that spending time with other people is a major source of happiness and health, and dogs' inadvertent but effective ability to bring people together is likely to play a major role in promoting the well-being of their owners'.

However, some of the comments did seem a little dubious - in Chapter Nine, Parenting, one of the `In 59 Seconds or Less' summaries claimed that `research shows that people with surnames beginning with a letter towards the start of the alphabet are more successful in life with names towards the end - and traditional names with royal associations are seen as particularly successful and intelligent' - is this also true across cultures, I wondered?

Some of the research is still being done - a study in chapter 10 on Personality - looked at the 2D: 4D ratio of fingers, or the Casanova Effect which was conducted by long-distance for Dr Wiseman via CSICOP's Jim Underdown, on thirty-seven of the best-known leading men and nine comedians... if the phenomenon is genuine, it might be able to tell us more about the magic X-factor (or is it X-Y factor) of masculine to feminine psychological and physical abilities.

Finally, those of you who follow Dr Wiseman on Twitter or check out his new site for the book at [...], will know that there's additional features that complement the book. There's '59 Seconds Tips' which so far include 'the power of purchases' and 'glasses and mirrors' - one on how buying experiences is better for one's happiness than buying goods - and the influence that tall glasses and a mirror in the kitchen can have on a diet. A very useful advertisement, because it foregrounds the useful advice and (as expected) makes clear just how much research went into the book. I'd suggest checking that out if you're wondering what useful elements you can glean from this text.

Oh, and if Dr Richard Wiseman does actually read book reviews of his work - he might notice that in this review, I often alluded to (but never actually said) the word `banana'. Funny that.

A Great Read
Finally a self help book that gives you the research and let's you figure out how to use it youself. Very well written with the right mix of facts and humor. I picked up a copy at the train satiation in London for a trip to Brussels and I'm glad I did. The only problem is that the quality of the binding was poor and started to fall apart. I was looking on Amazon to find a hard cover copy, but no luck. I hope this book doesn't fall through the cracks. It deserves more attention in my opinion.