A superb study of why clever people do stupid things

Albert Einstein wasted a large chunk of his life investigating a theory that his peers correctly regarded as scientifically unsound Pic: Getty

Popular Science: The Intelligence Trap, By David Robson, Hodder & Stoughton, €17.95

Arthur Conan Doyle was by any standards an exceptionally intelligent man. He qualified as a doctor, campaigned against various public injustices and wrote cold, logical detective stories that made him immensely wealthy. In 1920, however, two schoolgirls managed to convince the creator of Sherlock Holmes that they had photographed fairies at the bottom of their garden.

Doyle’s naivety has always been ...