Editions

  • The Mind is Flat
    Paperback 2019
  • The Mind is Flat
    Audio Download 2018
  • The Mind is Flat
    eBook 2018
  • The Mind is Flat
    Hardback 2018
Penguin Logo
  • Categories

    Fiction
    • Action & adventure
    • Classics
    • Crime, thrillers & mysteries
    • General fiction
    • Graphic novels
    • Romance
    • Poetry
    • Horror
    • Short stories
    • View all fiction
    Non-fiction
    • Art, architecture & photography
    • Biography
    • Business, economics & law
    • Food & drink
    • Health & lifestyle
    • History
    • Politics & philosophy
    • Science & nature
    • Sport
    • View all non-fiction
    Children's
    • 0 - 18 months
    • 18 months - 3 years
    • 3 - 5 years
    • 5 - 7 years
    • 7 - 9 years
    • 9 - 12 years
    • View all children's

    • Puffin

      Puffin

    • Ladybird

      Ladybird


    • Audiobooks
    • Gifts & boxsets
    • Must-reads of 2019
    • Books to kick-start 2019
  • Authors A-Z

    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • J
    • K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
    • W
    • X
    • Y
    • Z
    • All Authors A-Z


    Featured Authors

    Lee Child

    Jojo Moyes

    Zadie Smith

    Carlo Rovelli

    Margaret Atwood

    James Patterson

    Yotam Ottolenghi

    Roald Dahl

  • Articles, Games and more...

    Articles
    • Recommendations
    • Features
    • Extracts
    • Quizzes
    • View all articles
    Children's articles
    • Recommendations
    • Extracts
    • Games & activities
    • Quizzes
    • View all children's articles
    Penguin Shop
    • Book bundles
      Book bundles
    • Penguin gifts
      Penguin gifts
    • Signed & special editions
      Signed & special editions
    • Writing workshops
      Writing workshops
    • View all
      View all

    • Events
    • Podcasts
    • Apps

    • Penguin Classics
    • VINTAGE
  • About Penguin Random House UK

    About Us
    • Overview
    • Company history
    • Leadership Team
    • News
    • Blogs
    Work with us
    • Authors
    • Careers
    • Rights and permissions
    • Penguin Living
    • Penguin Ventures
    • Sales & distribution
    • Student Design Award
    Publishing houses
    • Cornerstone
    • Ebury
    • Michael Joseph
    • Penguin General
    • Penguin Press
    • Penguin Random House Audio
    • Penguin Random House Children's
    • Transworld
    • VINTAGE
    Creative Responsibility
    • About Creative Responsibility
    • Reading
    • Community
    • Inclusion
    • Sustainability
    • WriteNow
    • Penguin Talks
    Contact us
    • Offices
    • Media contacts
    • Catalogues
  • Home
  • The Mind is Flat
The Mind is Flat
  • Imprint: Penguin

  • Published: 28/03/2019

  • ISBN: 9780241208779

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 16mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 202g

  • RRP: £8.99

The Mind is Flat

Nick Chater

  • Hardback
  • Paperback
  • Ebook
  • Audio Download
  • Hive Waterstones Amazon

A radical reinterpretation of how your mind works - and why it could change your life

'An astonishing achievement. Nick Chater has blown my mind' Tim Harford

'A total assault on all lingering psychiatric and psychoanalytic notions of mental depths ... Light the touchpaper and stand well back' New Scientist

We all like to think we have a hidden inner life. Most of us assume that our beliefs and desires arise from the murky depths of our minds, and, if only we could work out how to access this mysterious world, we could truly understand ourselves. For more than a century, psychologists and psychiatrists have struggled to discover what lies below our mental surface.

In The Mind Is Flat, pre-eminent behavioural scientist Nick Chater reveals that this entire enterprise is utterly misguided. Drawing on startling new research in neuroscience, behavioural psychology and perception, he shows that we have no hidden depths to plumb, and unconscious thought is a myth. Instead, we generate our ideas, motives and thoughts in the moment. This revelation explains many of the quirks of human behaviour - for example why our supposedly firm political beliefs, personal preferences and even our romantic attractions are routinely proven to be inconsistent and changeable.

As the reader discovers, through mind-bending visual examples and counterintuitive experiments, we are all characters of our own creation, constantly improvising our behaviour based on our past experiences. And, as Chater shows us, recognising this can be liberating.

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • Published: 28/03/2019

  • ISBN: 9780241208779

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 16mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 202g

  • RRP: £8.99


  • Share at

  • Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook Facebook - facebook
  • Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter Twitter - twitter
  • Pinterest - pinterest Pinterest - pinterest
  • Email - email Email - email
  • Whatsapp - whatsapp Whatsapp - whatsapp

About the Author

Nick Chater

Nick Chater is Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. He founded WBS's Behavioural Science group, which is the largest of its kind in Europe, advises the UK's Behavioural Insights Team and was scientist-in-residence on the BBC Radio 4 series The Human Zoo. He is a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change, and a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society and the British Academy.

Nick Chater

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, offers and more 

  • Please enter an email.

    Please enter a valid email address

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

Thank you for signing up to the Penguin Newsletter

Subscription failed, please try again

About us
  • Our company
  • Work with us
  • Getting published
  • Careers
  • Publishing houses
  • Creative Responsibility
  • Contact us
  • Send website feedback
Useful links
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & conditions
  • Help & FAQs
  • Gender pay gap report 2017
  • Industry commitment to professional behaviour
  • Permissions
Stay connected

Follow Penguin

  • Facebook Facebook
  • Instagram Instagram
  • Twitter Twitter
  • Youtube Youtube

Follow Puffin

  • Puffin Facebook Puffin Facebook
  • Puffin Instagram Puffin Instagram
  • Puffin Twitter Puffin Twitter
  • Puffin YouTube Puffin YouTube

Follow Ladybird

  • Ladybird Facebook Ladybird Facebook
  • Ladybird Twitter Ladybird Twitter
  • Ladybird YouTube Ladybird YouTube

Follow Penguin Random House UK

  • @PenguinRHUK Twitter link @PenguinRHUK Twitter link
  • @PenguinRHUK Instagram link @PenguinRHUK Instagram link
  • Penguin Random House YouTube link Penguin Random House YouTube link

© 1995 - 2019

Penguin Books Ltd.

Registered number: 861590 England.

Registered office: 80 Strand, London,

WC2R ORL UK.

Penguin Random House

Penguin Books Limited

A Penguin Random House Company.

We use cookies on this site and by continuing to browse it you agree to us sending you cookies.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here.