The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience

What can’t neuroscience tell us about ourselves? Since fMRI was introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from musical aptitude to romantic love. But although brain scans and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking insights into the workings of the human brain, the increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of psychology is misguided—and potentially dangerous.

Awards

• 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in Science and Technology