[Basic academic and radio bio material at the end]

"Before You Know It" is my first book for a general audience. I've edited a dozen or so academic books covering research and theory in psychology, but writing this book was a completely new experience. It is about my career as a scientist interested in free will and what human consciousness is actually for -- I wanted a better, more specific answer than "everything", which is where things were when I started in the 1970s. We are all interested in these basic questions but I got to spend my adult life trying to find the answers to them -- getting paid for what I wanted to do anyway, not bad eh?

So I majored in psychology (and minored in Led Zeppelin, as a late night FM disc jockey) in college (Illinois) and went on to graduate PhD work in social psychology (Michigan) -- and then was very fortunate to land a job as a professor at NYU in Greenwich Village. What a life-changer, from the sleepy Midwest to the middle of Manhattan. I learned a lot about human nature from observing that city life but also (different things!) from rural life in Connecticut since I moved to Yale. But I learned even more from watching my daughter grow up while I was working on the book.

The book contains many 'inside' stories about the research going on in my lab -- how the mundane events in our day to day life can have remarkable influences on whether we like and trust someone or not, such as whether we are holding a hot or an iced cup of coffee at the moment. (Why should that matter?) And how our worries about flu viruses and germs in general can change our social and political attitudes such as about immigration, or same-sex marriage. (Huh? What does the flu have to do with immigration??) how we are able to make sense of the rapid-fire stimulus overload of a teeming metropolis packed with people, cars, noise, and craziness. How we know to seize on good opportunities and avoid danger and people who don't have our best interests at heart, something that matters to us today as much as it did to long ago cavemen and cavewomen.

While writing the book I learned some valuable things too -- such as following Norman Mailer's advice and giving myself assignments days in advance of when I need them done. This allows my mind to work on them unconsciously in the background while I am doing other things, and then when I did sit down to write the next chapter, I knew already how I wanted to organize the different stories and studies, maybe even how to put things in just the right way. Thank you Mr Mailer!

Hey, there are some dumb jokes as well. I tried to make reading the book an enjoyable as well as interesting experience. So you will get useful science and helpful advice but have fun reading it too.

Basic academic info (radio bio below): born in Champaign, Illinois. Graduated Champaign Central High School 1973. Graduated University of Illinois 1977. PhD from University of Michigan 1981. Professor at NYU (Psychology) from 1981-2003. Professor at Yale (Psychology) 2003-present. Currently James Rowland Angell Professor of Psychology, and director of ACME lab. Major awards: Guggenheim Fellowship (2001), Early (1989) and Distinguished (2014) Career Achievement Awards from American Psychological Association, Honorary Doctorate from Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2008), Donald T. Campbell Award for Distinguished Career in Social Psychology (2006), inducted into American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2011).

Radio days: WPGU-FM Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (1972-1977; progressive rock; mainly night-time 9pm-midnight and morning 10am-noon disc jockey); WIQB-FM Ann Arbor, Michigan (1977-1979; jazz; weekend overnight disc jockey; 9pm-3am); WUOM-FM Ann Arbor (1977-1979; field engineer, production); KUER-AM Salt Lake City (1979-1980; newscaster); KUER-FM Salt Lake City, Utah (1979-1980; evening jazz show); KWHO-FM Salt Lake City (1979-1980; weekend classical show)