The Cult of Personality
The Cult of Personality by Annie Murphy Paul is a 2004 Psychology & Mind book written by TED speaker Annie Murphy Paul, paired here with the talk they gave.
The pairing
- Paired talk: "What we learn before we're born" (2011), 3.2M views on TED.com
- Timing: Published 7 years before the talk.
- In the catalogue: The 1st of 3 books by Annie Murphy Paul on Books Worth Reading (2004–2010), by publication year.
- Edition: Free Press, 2004 · 320 pages
The paired TED talk
What we learn before we're born (2011), the TED talk by Annie Murphy Paul.
From the publisher
Millions of Americans take personality tests each year: to get a job, to pursue an education, to settle a legal dispute, to better understand themselves and others." "Combining cutting-edge research, engaging reporting, and absorbing history, Paul uncovers the way these allegedly neutral instruments are in fact shaped by the agendas of industry and government. She documents the dangers of their intrusive questions, biased assumptions, and limiting labels. And she exposes the flawed theories and faulty methods that render their results unreliable and invalid. Personality tests, she contends, produce descriptions of people that are nothing like human beings as they actually are: complicated, contradictory, changeable across time and place.
More books by Annie Murphy Paul