Book Review: Why We Ask Why by Tania Lombrozo

Carefully Tailored Yet Ultimately Still Not Curious Enough. This is a book all about explaining the psychology of why we ask *certain* questions. Indeed, Lombrozo is very careful in the first chapters to set *very* precise guardrails on *exactly* what she intends to look at, and does a great job of staying *exactly* in that lane throughout the text. Indeed, as close to a true "laser focus" as I may have truly ever seen in any book I've read to date, and at this point I have over 2,500 books rated on Goodreads and nearly as many reviews written.

Quite clearly an academic who runs a research lab - Lombrozo mentions this at least a half dozen different times in the 10 or so chapters of this text -, this is also a book written in a style specifically intended for a more general audience, and again, the crafting here is very careful in staying focused on that... though perhaps not as focused as staying within the exact discussion parameters. Yes, the science book gets a bit science-y, but at least as someone with a Computer Science degree who came to within just a handful of classes of getting two other mathematics-related degrees (Mathematics and Secondary Mathematics Education) at the same time... *I* didn't really have any difficulties reasonably following the science here. But I've also read other books far more specialized than even this where the authors went *much* deeper into the technical aspects of the science, and still followed along not quite as reasonably as I did here. :)

Bibliography was just enough - 15% - to hold the star there, even though the discussion here is largely based on Lombrozo's own research and experiences, so that was good to see since some others who write from similar experience levels then don't have such a lengthy bibliography.

Indeed the only real criticism I have here - and this is 100% "Your Mileage May Vary" level - is that late in the text when Lombrozo begins to get into applications of the research, she really doesn't get curious *enough*, instead insisting on standard academic approaches to social and governmental institutions without ever applying the very research at hand to questions of why they came to be or why they continue to exist, among others. But as I noted, this is very much a situation where if you share Lombrozo's lack of curiosity about these issues - or perhaps acceptance of the mass "explanations" of them - eh, you likely won't have that point of criticism of this text.

Either way, this is very much a book you'll learn a fair amount from, and if you do choose to read it I do hope you'll write your own review wherever you found this one. It doesn't have to be anywhere near as wordy as this review. It could be shorter than this very sentence. Every view helps the blind mice learn they are in the presence of an elephant... or lion. ;)

Very much recommended.

This review of Why We Ask Why by Tania Lombrozo was originally written on October 7, 2026.