Richard E. Nisbett is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has written numerous books on intelligence and cultural psychology and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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It's the concept of a human parasite, that can control your emotions. But [I wanted] to do that in a really hard science, granular step-by-step [way]. When biologists read these books, they say, yeah, technically that could actually happen.
You're only as smart as your genes have programmed you to be. Asians are smarter than westerners. Some nationalities do better in engineering or music than others. Those beliefs have been around for decades, even among many experts. Now social psychologist Richard Nisbett takes those common beliefs apart, and shows how environment plays a much bigger role in intelligence than previously thought. His book is called "Intelligence and How to Get It."
It's the concept of a human parasite, that can control your emotions. But [I wanted] to do that in a really hard science, granular step-by-step [way]. When biologists read these books, they say, yeah, technically that could actually happen.
