The Winner Effect

July 2, 2012
Considering the question of whether winners are born or made, how power affects people, and related matters, Robertson (Mind Sculpture), professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, has produced a book that is both utterly fascinating and deeply unsatisfying. It is fascinating in the same manner as tabloid gossip and unsatisfying because there is no reason to accept any of the explanations offered. Robertson believes it possible to merge experimental psychology with neuroscience to explain the behavior of famous individuals. For example he addresses why Pablo Picasso’s son, Paulo, led a dysfunctional life, why the friendship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton disintegrated, and why Tiger Woods missed a three-foot putt in a tournament playoff in 2006. Although Robertson acknowledges that he’s merely speculating, he writes as if individual behavior is fully deterministic. He jumps among examples and time periods so freely that reading this book is akin to riding a roller-coaster while looking through a kaleidoscope. Beyond the pop psychology, Robertson does encourage readers to focus on the role power plays in interpersonal and political relationships, urging a deeper understanding of how its use can be structured to serve the greater good. Agent: Sally Holloway, Felicity Bryan Associates (U.K.).

September 1, 2012
Robertson (Psychology/Trinity College Dublin; Opening the Mind's Eye: How Images and Language Teach Us to See, 2003, etc.) looks at how success and power affect human behavior. The author broadly explores the psychological and neurochemical factors behind the human drive for success and how people's behavior can change once they achieve it. "Why do we want to win so badly, and what makes a winner?" he writes. Robertson examines these questions from several different angles, citing numerous studies. In one section, he writes about children of successful people that were troubled failures, and how some may have been rendered psychologically unmotivated due to unreachable expectations. (The author oddly portrays oil-fortune heir Balthazar Getty as an unsuccessful actor, neglecting to mention Getty's recent stint as a cast member on the ABC show Brothers & Sisters, among other achievements.) In other sections, Robertson examines how some world leaders' behavior might be explainable, in part, due to the effects of testosterone on their brains, and of how Oscar winners live longer, on average, than Oscar nominees. While the author makes some interesting points, he does so while hyperactively throwing anecdotes at readers--in one six-page span, he writes about African cichlid fish, a study of London financial traders, the 1994 World Cup final and a 1995 Mike Tyson boxing match--making his arguments seem less well-reasoned than scattershot. His prose style can be clunky, as well, and his habit of repeatedly urging readers to take multiple-question quizzes gives the book the feel of a self-help manual at times. An unfocused analysis of what lies behind the desire to win.

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