Neurobollocks

Left brained or right brained?INFJ?Neuro-linguistic programming?In a world obsessed with self-optimisation and productivity hacks, we’re told that tapping into our ‘chimp brain’ can transform our leadership, that playing your baby Mozart will make them a genius, and that 10,000 hours of practice can make anyone world-class.It sounds scientific. It feels empowering. But more often than not, it’s neurobollocks: neuroscience that has been oversimplified, misreported or simply made up.And it’s everywhere. Neuro-nonsense shapes how we educate our children, market products, run businesses and look after our health. At best, it misleads us. At worst, it can be actively harmful – distracting us from the evidence and holding back real progress where it matters.Here to set the record straight, leading neuroscientist Dr Joseph Devlin investigates how these seductive ideas about the brain took root, why they refuse to die and what the science actually says. Along the way, he dismantles some of our most persistent – and damaging – neuromyths, giving us a clearer, more fascinating picture of how our brains really work.In an age when misinformation travels faster than scientific truth, algorithms reward certainty over nuance and we’re increasingly hungry for simple answers to complex problems, Neurobollocks is an essential guide to separating fact from fiction, evidence from hype and neuroscience from nonsense.