SITUATIONS MATTER Understanding How Context Transforms Your World

Psychology professor Sam Sommers has gathered together provocative studies that examine how the context of situations influences our behavior and our self-concept. He jettisons the idea of an authentic self, arguing that our identities are flexible. Joshua Swanson’s lively performance has a dash of the slightly nerdy professor. He engages the listener’s attention as Sommers ranges from a frightening discussion of how crowd conformity does more to contribute to genocide and war crimes than do a few bad apples to lighter but equally fascinating data on how we are more likely to marry someone in the neighborhood. Sommers includes amusing anecdotes from his life with small children to show how he still misjudges situations even when he knows better. Swanson perfectly captures that humorous self-deprecation. A.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]