Review: Psy-Q: Test Yourself With More Than 80 Quizzes, Puzzles, and Experiments for Everyday Life by Ben Ambridge

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

PSY-Q: Test Yourself with More Than 80 Quizzes, Puzzles, and Experiments for Everyday Life (A Penguin Original / on-sale: December 30, 2014 / 978-0-14-312620-1 / $15.00) by Ben Ambridge is Psychology 101 as you wish it were taught: a collection of entertaining experiments, quizzes, jokes, and interactive exercises.
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior: how and why people do absolutely everything that people do, from the most life-changing event such as choosing a partner, to the most humdrum, such as having an extra donut. Ben Ambridge takes these findings and invites the reader to test their knowledge of themselves, their friends, and their families through quizzes, jokes, and games. You’ll measure your personality, intelligence, moral values, skill at drawing, capacity for logical reasoning, and more—all of it adding up to a greater knowledge of yourself, a higher “Psy-Q.”
Take Dr. Ben’s quizzes to learn:
If listening to Mozart makes you smarter Whether or not your boss is a psychopath How good you are at waiting for a reward (and why it matters) Why we find symmetrical faces more attractive What your taste in art says about you
Lighthearted, fun, and accessible, this is the perfect introduction to psychology that can be fully enjoyed and appreciated by readers of all ages.

MY TAKE:
If you love taking personality quizzes and learning why people tend to think a certain way, this book may be for you.

Psy-Q: Test Yourself With More Than 80 Quizzes, Puzzles, and Experiments for Everyday Life contains tons of quizzes, jokes, and tests that tell you a little something about yourself and how scientists came to that conclusion.

This book reminded me of the National Geographic show Brain Games. In fact, I spotted at least one (the invisible gorilla) which I saw on the show.

The format is also sort of like Brain Games. It usually starts with an activity of some sort followed by an explanation regarding what it says about you or what your answer may be. The explanation usually involves a scientific phenomenon or study that explains why the outcome is that way.

There were plenty of interesting studies and observations in this book. Some of the things that I enjoyed reading about were the Muller-Lyer illusion, the Mozart effect, and conspiracy theorists.

The book is very informative and if you're relatively new or a novice when it comes to psychology, you'll definitely learn a lot of new things. The great thing about this book is that it's written in an entertaining way, keeping you from being bored, and thus allowing you to absorb more information.

The tests are fun too, and they're the kind you'd want to do or share with family and friends, if only to compare their answers with yours and if the explanations hold true for them as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. It's an entertaining read.
2. It's well-researched.
3. You'll learn a lot about yourself, psychology and human behavior. 

THE BAD:

1. If you don't like writing in your books, you're going to have to keep a pen and paper handy to keep track of your answers and compute your scores. 

READ IT IF:

1. You wonder what makes humans tick.
2. You like personality quizzes.
3. You like learning new things. 

RATING:


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