A review by seclement
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

5.0

I bought this book on a whim when I was browsing in the psychology section, mainly because this was the only book (besides Kahneman's most recent) in that section that was not a ridiculous self-help book. I'm not sure what's happening to the psychology section of book stores, but I do know that this was an excellent impulse buy. I really liked the way this book was organised. Each chapter built on the previous one, taking the reader through a really compelling narrative about how we decide - exactly as advertised. He does an excellent job of weaving personal narratives with the research, which really made the information about the way the brain works easier to understand and absolutely fascinating. One of the things I enjoyed most about the book was that he has restored some of my faith in my brain! This may sound a bit odd, but after reading books like Mistakes Were Made and Invisible Gorilla, you start to get a bit flustered with just how wrong you can be. This book was a good counterbalance to the effect of reading those. Although he does discuss the weaknesses of the way our brain regions interact when making a decision, he also discusses many of the strengths and provides really clear, tangible ways that we can protect ourselves from errors and play on those strengths. It's not an academic work, so the referencing is not very good (just a Bibliography and no in-text citations or footnotes). It didn't bother me that much, but because I read books like this for the curiosity factor, it does make it difficult to follow up on particular passages that piqued my interest. I imagine that if you were in this field of research, the lack of referencing would annoy you, but I'd say this book isn't directed at you, rather it's for the curious layman who wants to know more about what's happening inside his/her head when making decisions.