The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters

Award-winning psychologists Daniel Wegner and Kurt M. Gray invite you to consider how you determine whom and what has a mind in this revelatory look into our predilections and prejudices.

Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the mind club. It’s easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of mind do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds-while incredibly important-are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening, and funny. By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets-animals, machines, comatose people, god-Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matter so much. Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.