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    The Character Gap: How Good Are We?
    The Character Gap: How Good Are We?
    The Character Gap: How Good Are We?
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Character Gap: How Good Are We?

    Written by Christian B. Miller

    Narrated by Johnny Heller

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    We like to think of ourselves, our friends, and our families as decent people. We may not be saints, but we are still honest, relatively kind, and mostly trustworthy. Miller argues here that we are badly mistaken in thinking this. Hundreds of recent studies in psychology tell a different story: that we all have serious character flaws that prevent us from being as good as we think we are-and that we do not even recognize that these flaws exist. But neither are most of us cruel or dishonest. Instead, Miller argues, we are a mixed bag. On the one hand, most of us in a group of bystanders will do nothing as someone cries out for help in an emergency. Yet it is also true that there will be many times when we will selflessly come to the aid of a complete stranger-and resist the urge to lie, cheat, or steal even if we could get away with it. Much depends on cues in our social environment. Miller uses this recent psychological literature to explain what the notion of "character" really means today, and how we can use this new understanding to develop a character better in sync with the kind of people we want to be.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 19, 2018
    ISBN9781977330420
    The Character Gap: How Good Are We?

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    Reviews for The Character Gap

    4/5

    8 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book was great because it told us how moral we really are rather than either good vs bad. There were many examples given throughout demonstrating this. It’s all based on research though it’s super easy to digest in audio form. Moreover, it provides techniques for increasing character, including their pros and cons. It even has a chapter on how religion particularly Christianity can help one to become more moral. It has a lot of interesting and useful trivia thrown in too.
    • 5/5
      Well written and researched. In this book, we finally have an informed and powerful rejoinder to the argument upon which the book Against Empathy was written (a great book in its own right but one with obvious problems).
    • 3/5
      I thought the empirical research was very well documented, but its sheer volume made the book quite repetitive towards the latter half. Even the author seemed to recognize that in his writing, commenting that "by now" we could probably predict the results of the studies he would cite. The main point of the book is that most people are neither virtuous not vicious, but are highly complex and their actions depend on innumerable factors, many of which they are not aware. It has a strong Christian emphasis especially towards the end, but the author is by no means trying to convert readers or anything.