NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An award-winning psychologist reveals the hidden power of our inner voice
and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety improve physical and mental health and deepen
our relationships with others.LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • A
masterpiece.”—Angela Duckworth bestselling author of Grit • Malcolm Gladwell Susan Cain Adam
Grant and Daniel H. Pink’s Next Big Idea Club Winter 2021 Winning SelectionOne of the best new
books of the year—The Washington Post BBC USA Today CNN Underscored Shape Behavioral
Scientist PopSugar • Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly and Shelf Awareness starred
reviewsTell a stranger that you talk to yourself and you’re likely to get written off as
eccentric. But the truth is that we all have a voice in our head. When we talk to ourselves we
often hope to tap into our inner coach but find our inner critic instead. When we’re facing a
tough task our inner coach can buoy us up: Focus—you can do this. But just as often our
inner critic sinks us entirely: I’m going to fail. They’ll all laugh at me. What’s the use? In
Chatter acclaimed psychologist Ethan Kross explores the silent conversations we have with
ourselves. Interweaving groundbreaking behavioral and brain research from his own lab with
real-world case studies—from a pitcher who forgets how to pitch to a Harvard undergrad
negotiating her double life as a spy—Kross explains how these conversations shape our lives
work and relationships. He warns that giving in to negative and disorienting self-talk—what he
calls chatter”—can tank our health sink our moods strain our social connections and cause us
to fold under pressure. But the good news is that we’re already equipped with the tools we need
to make our inner voice work in our favor. These tools are often hidden in plain sight—in the
words we use to think about ourselves the technologies we embrace the diaries we keep in our
drawers the conversations we have with our loved ones and the cultures we create in our
schools and workplaces. Brilliantly argued expertly researched and filled with compelling
stories Chatter gives us the power to change the most important conversation we have each day:
the one we have with ourselves.
