Welcome to the second interview with neuroscientist Dean Burnett. It is not absolutely imperative that you listen to our first discussion before moving onto this one, as this episode can stand on its own, but I would suggest listening to both. Once again, we focus predominantly on his first book, The Idiot Brain, although on occasion we drift beyond its confines. I began by asking Burnett to explain the so-called Five Factor Model of Personality, which led on to a discussion about the serious flaws of most personality tests, in particular the hugely popular Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I raised the issue of the inherent difficulty of conducting social psychology research and asked my guest about which major findings in the field still hold up. As in the first interview episode of Skeptically Curious with David Robert Grimes, I asked Dean Burnett why he did not devote an entire chapter of The Idiot Brain to religion. He did, however, mention apophenia and pareidolia in that book, which we briefly discuss. We spent quite a bit of time delving into various facets of intelligence research, including the widespread bias among many in the public against IQ tests, and indeed intelligence more broadly, the general factor, or g factor of intelligence, the difference between fluid and crystallised intelligence, and whether it is possible to increase one’s fluid intelligence based on research cited in a book by Dan Hurley called ‘Smarter’ I read earlier this year. I also asked Burnett about the Flynn Effect, Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, and EQ, or emotional intelligence. Dean argued that the supposed division between EQ and IQ largely rests on a false dichotomy of someone either possessing intellect or emotional awareness, which is not necessarily the case, a point I thought was really important to emphasise. The two of us then spoke about the stigma that still surrounds mental health, particularly depression, although as Burnett noted, this has improved over the years. He drew an intriguing parallel between the discomfort often engendered by people with high intellects and those with, for example, depression, or other mental health ailments, as there is still something unsettlingly inaccessible, or even mysterious, about the brain’s complicated operations. I asked Burnett about the validity of the theory linking depression to inflammation and possible alternative treatments to the condition beyond anti-depressants. Lastly, I asked my guest to provide some insight into the ingredients for a happy brain, incidentally the title of his second book.

Dean Burnett’s personal website: https://www.deanburnett.com/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/garwboy

The Idiot Brain (2016): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/the-idiot-brain/

The Happy Brain (2018): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/the-happy-brain/

Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up the Wall and What To Do About It (2019): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/why-your-parents-are-driving-you-up-the-wall-and-what-to-do-about-it/

Psycho-Logical (2021): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/psycho-logical-audiobook/

Dan Hurley’s ‘Smarter’ (2013): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079605-smarter

Stuart Ritchie’s ‘Intelligence: All that Matters’ (2015): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25356335-intelligence