Conville & Walsh
literary agency
Rip It Up
- Author: Richard Wiseman
- Category: Non-fiction Psychology Self-help
- Publisher: Macmillan (UK), Simon and Schuster (US)
- Pub date: 5 July 2012
- Length: 256 pages
About Rip It Up
If you think that feeling happy makes you smile, becoming anxious makes you tense, and being confident makes you hold your head up high, you’ve got it the wrong way round.
Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Professor Richard Wiseman reveals that everything you think you know about the human mind is incorrect. Contrary to popular belief, it is your behavior that causes your thoughts and emotions. Smiling makes you feel happy, tensing makes you feel anxious and holding your head up high makes you feel confident.
A century ago the Harvard philosopher, William James, theorized: ‘If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.’ Wiseman presents a dazzling array of scientific evidence showing that James was correct, and demonstrates how simply acting as if boosts motivation, increases confidence, promotes persuasion, encourages altruism, reduces anxiety, changes attitudes, and even slows ageing.
Adopting a radically new approach to personal development and organizational growth, RIP IT UP is the simple idea that changes everything.
About the Author
Richard Wiseman was born in 1966 and began his working life as an award-winning professional magician, quickly becoming one of the youngest-ever members of The Magic Circle. Having obtained a first-class honours degree in psychology from University College London (1985–1988) and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh (1988–1992), he was awarded the prestigious Perrott Warrick Fellowship from Trinity College, Cambridge; and now heads a 30-strong research unit based within the Department of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.
In 2002 he was appointed the country’s first Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology, and he is the most cited psychologist now working in Britain. Together, Richard’s last two books, QUIRKOLOGY and 59 SECONDS, have translated into thirty languages and have sold approximately 500,000 copies worldwide.