You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions [Hardcover]

Scott de Marchi (Author), James T. Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2009

The hidden patterns behind the way we make decisions

Several recent books, from Blink to Freakonomics to Predictably Irrational, have examined how people make choices. But none explain why different people have such different styles of decision making—and why those styles seem consistent across many contexts. For instance, why is a gambler always a gambler, whether at work, on the highway, or in a voting booth?

Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton present a new theory about how we decide, based on an extensive survey of more than thirty thousand subjects. They show that each of us possesses six core traits that shape every decision, from what to have for lunch to where to invest. We go with “the usual” way of deciding whenever there’s a trade-off between current and future happiness, when facing the risk of a bad outcome, or when a choice might hurt other people. We’re also consistent about how much information we want and how much we care about the opinions of others.

Readers can determine their own decision-making profile with a test in the book. Once they understand the six core traits, they’ll have a big advantage in their marketing campaigns, management strategies, investments, and many other contexts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott de Marchi is an associate professor of political science at Duke, where he also heads the program for advanced research in the social sciences.

James T. Hamilton is the Charles S. Sydnor Professor of Public Policy at Duke University, as well as a professor of economics and political science. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (November 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842867
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842866
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #497,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New and Ingenious Way to Examine How It Is People Make Decisions, December 6, 2009

By 

Warren R. Grayson "Constant Reader" (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions (Hardcover)

In today's marketplace there exists a real glut of books that examine the ways in which people make decisions - Jonah Lehrer, How We Decide; Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness; Zachary Shore, Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions [BLUNDER -OS]; Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking; Ori Brafman, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior; etc.

This book is different.

As the authors explain, "What these and other books on marketing and decision making do not explore, however, is how individuals vary systematically in the way they approach decisions across many aspects of their lives. For example, people who are willing to accept risks in products and revisit their purchase decisions are also more likely to do the same in politics, and therefore call themselves independents. A main contribution of the TRAITS model is to show how a person's decision-making habits stay the same across different types of choices. This means that data on how you make decisions as a neighbor and voter can be used to predict your life as a consumer." So, what is the TRAITS model? 'TRAITS' stands for the "six core habits of mind that affect how you make decisions in all areas of your life." T=Time, R=Risk, A=Altruism, I=Information, T=meToo and S=Stickiness. Included in the Appendix is a brief self-survey, which you can use to score yourself and determine how you routinely make decisions (For example, my score looks like this: T=-1, R=-5,A=-1, I=+5, T=+1, S=+1).

The authors state that, "...TRAITS are like a Myers-Briggs personality test for how people choose. In the following chapters, we will explore the relationship between these TRAITS and many different types of decisions. We will also examine why some people make better choices than others, have an easier time learning from experience, and may act more like investors than consumers when the personal costs of living out their worldview become high." Also, "As we will see here and in sub-sequent chapters, our TRAITS model helps explain seemingly unrelated choices. To a large degree, how you choose (i.e., what type of decision maker you are) matters more than what you are choosing."

One important point that De Marchi and Hamilton make early on in this book is that whether one takes the view that people are rational (ex. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.) or The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World), or irrational (ex. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions or The Mind of the Market: How Biology and Psychology Shape Our Economic Lives), in many respects both views are useless because neither view has any predictive value. Their view is simple: "We believe that habits of mind that people use to make decisions are essentially the same across many different types of choices, reflecting what they value and how they reach decisions." And in this respect, the TRAITS model does appear to have substantial predictive value in comparison to Demographics, Data Mining, Political Affiliation and or Microtargeting. Does the TRAITS model always beat-out these other models of decision making prediction? No, but the authors are very forthcoming in their TRAIT model's limitations, which is a nice bit of intellectual honesty to say the least.

In conclusion, De Marchi and Hamilton have struck upon a new and ingenious way to examine how it is people make decisions. While I have no doubt that the intended niche for this book is in the field of Marketing, I think it is equally valuable to anyone working in Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. "Overall, our model shows that the TRAITS matter in predicting a person's views about sexual choices just as much as in predicting a person's consumer choices. This is surprising because the questions that make up the TRAITS have nothing to do with social issues, politics, same-sex relationships, or anything similar. Rather, they deal with purchasing habits, what type of restaurants you eat at, or whether you visit the dentist." I hope - and expect - to read more about the TRAITS model in the future. Lastly, I think a great place to continue reading in the mean time, is Read Montague's book Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new look at human behavior with significant implications for future research, December 29, 2009

By 

Karl Lietzan (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions (Hardcover)

I liked it, read it very quickly. A very nice light touch with a simple but important point: There is a ton of data available on consumption that is analyzed all the time by the usual suspects. Mostly these people just look for correlations which they then explain post hoc and then sell books and consulting based on what they've found. de Marchi and Hamilton look at the same data but focusing on correlations related to how consumers make decisions. This can then be exploited for fun, profit and world domination.

A couple of questions:
1) Psych folks must obsess over this stuff constantly, but I don't see anything in the book that indicates that those fields were consulted. There has to be at least one honest scientist over there who could help improve the model.
2) Why such a short survey? For instance, I know that the appearance of clothes and house are important to success as widely perceived, but they're not important to success as defined by me. Should my meToo be higher or lower with this in mind? A longer survey might be more precise.

I highly recommend this very useful and entertaining book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stick it to the man, December 4, 2009

By 

morelater (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions (Hardcover)

A fascinating new approach to decision making made accessible to both the marketers and the marketed. The book is entertaining throughout with thought provoking analysis of decisions that everyone has made at some time or another. The authors break the mold of conventional survey data mining by also digging through google, twitter, and online political donation records to evaluate whether their model of human behavior is an accurate predictor in the new frontier. In the end, the examples of choices projected onto the underlying bases the authors have proposed leave the consumer ready to breakdown their decisions for themselves. Don't leave your choices up to the advertisers - read this book!