The importance of IQ is a self-fulfilling prophecy set up by our society. We say, unless you have a high IQ, it's hard to get into Yale, Harvard, Princeton. People who have higher IQs make more money, they tend to be kinder and to be less racist, less sexist. They live longer. They do better at their job,. whether their job is as a scholar or working in the Coast Guard, or just about anything.
In his expansive new book, "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind," Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, lays out, in his words, "basically everything I know about the mind." And when he says everything, he means it. Where does consciousness come from? Does IQ matter? What makes us happy? Was Sigmund Freud a madman? The answers to these questions (and more) are all in Paul's book — and in this episode.
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