The story of two transgendered biology professors at Stanford that Vedantam includes is the one that, as a woman, really got my attention. In the closest thing to a laboratory experiment on the influence of gender on people, the story demonstrates shocking role reversals for these two very smart, very accomplished people, one who went from being a woman to being a man, and one who went from being a man to being a woman. The transgendered man suddenly found himself taken more seriously. The transgendered woman found the opposite, and also saw her pay fall to the lowest 10% of her peer group.
These illustrations of the hidden brain at work are instructive and interesting, but I wish Vedantam had devoted a chapter to how to deal more effectively with the hidden brain's influence. His only solution is to bring hidden biases into the light, and no doubt this is what we need to do. But he does not offer a unified discussion on how to proceed. He believes the Western civilization is built on the false assumption that people are rational and will act in their own best interests, but then he leaves of each to our own individual devices to decide what to do about it.
Perhaps I am asking too much of a journalist. His job is to tell stories, not to create movements, academic, social, or otherwise. It is up to us, his readers, what to do with this information about the hidden brain. I am doing my part, I guess, by writing about it. If any of these stories intrigue you, I urge you to get the book and read it, and see what you think of the hidden brain.
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