SUPERSENSE Why We Believe in the Unbelievable

Hood, a professor of developmental psychology, explores how the human mind may be "pre-wired" with a "supersense," which he believes shapes our intuitions and superstitions. It’s essential to the way we learn to understand the world and bind together as a society. This sense is not super as in "powers and abilities above those of mortal men," but as in "supernatural." Our brains, he says, are physiologically geared to bestowing magical attributes upon natural phenomena. Religion, superstition, and fetishism all stem from this mental quirk, which engenders positive results as well. Hood's prose is more interesting than convincing. For the most part, he writes in clear, accessible language, which narrator Kerin McCue opines earnestly and intelligently in a youthful, listenable voice. Y.R. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2009]