How to Kill an Earworm: And 500+ Other Psychology Facts You Need to Know

The book's structure is clear from the first page: each chapter opens with a 'What you'll learn in this chapter' list, followed by alternating one- or two-page headed pieces, one-sentence 'weird fact' notes and four-option 'Psych Test' questions. There are more than 270 quiz questions in total, with the answers at the end. This format lets you open the book at any page, but read in one sitting it feels somewhat scattered.

The first chapter mixes evolutionary psychology with the history of psychology. Ancient Greek physicians explaining temperament through the four bodily humours; medieval doctors treating lovesickness as an excess of black bile and prescribing good food, calm and walks in the garden; the possibility that post-traumatic stress disorder lay behind the Salem witch trials; PTSD symptoms described in Mesopotamian warriors three thousand years ago — these are the chapter's most interesting pieces. Facts such as clinical depression first being described in the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, dating from around 1500 BC, also stick in the mind.

The author's strength lies in bridging everyday experience and the lives of our ancestors. Children's fear of the monster under the bed is explained by the instinct of ancestors protecting themselves from predators in the dark, and our anxiety about change by a 'Stone Age brain' attached to small tribal life where everything was familiar. The pieces on how hugging, via oxytocin and serotonin, helped survival in tribal life, and on storytelling emerging as a way to reduce conflict within the tribe, are also interesting.

About half of the chapter, however, is about the psychology of technology rather than history: 'space stupidity', the mental health of future Mars colonists, a 2014 German study on shooter games and the hippocampus, the iCub robot's gaze slowing down decision-making, the 'digital amnesia' caused by over-reliance on the cloud, emoji psychology, binaural beats. The mismatch between the chapter's title and its content is noticeable — as if the editor simply had to put the interesting facts somewhere.

The book's main weakness is the lack of sources. 'Research shows' appears often, but which study, published where, is almost never stated. Some pieces (such as the Persians defeating the Egyptian army by using cats) present historical legend as fact, and the piece on binaural beats praises a scientifically disputed topic on the basis of an article in 'NeuroHealth'. The earworm-killing tips promised by the title are in another chapter.

The Turkish translation is lively and easy to read, and the humour comes across well ('your aunt's stubborn streak', 'the man who fell madly in love with his phone and married it in Las Vegas'). In the end this is not a deep introduction to psychology but a curiosity-sparking 'snack': if someone moves on to a serious psychology book after it, it has done its job.

• Short headed pieces, one-sentence 'weird facts' and quiz questions
• More than 270 four-option 'Psych Tests', with answers at the back
• A 'What you'll learn' summary at the start of each chapter
• Humorous, conversational style