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Science 12 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5933, pp. 1392 - 1393
DOI: 10.1126/science.1175719
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Books

Psychology:

Mr. Armstrong's Jersey and Mr. Rogers's Sweater

Michael Shermer

SuperSense Why We Believe in the Unbelievable / From Superstition to Religion—the Brain Science of Belief by Bruce M. Hood HarperOne, San Francisco, 2009. 320 pp. $25.99. ISBN 9780061452642. Constable, London. 330 pp. Paper, £8.99. ISBN 9781849010306.

Discussing beliefs in the supernatural and irrational, Hood argues that they arise because human minds have been selected to "think there are unseen patterns, forces, and essences inhabiting the world"—the beliefs help people bind together.

The reviewer, the author of The Mind of the Market, is at the Skeptics Society, 2761 North Marengo Avenue, Altadena, CA 91001, USA.

E-mail: mshermer{at}skeptic.com

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)