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How We Decide Hardcover – 2009

by Jonah Lehrer (Author)

292 customer reviews

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The first book to use the unexpected discoveries of neuroscience to help us make the best decisions

Since Plato, philosophers have described the decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate, or we “blink” and go with our gut. But as scientists break open the mind’s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they’re discovering that this is not how the mind works. Our best decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reasonâand the precise mix depends on the situation. When buying a house, for example, it’s best to let our unconscious mull over the many variables. But when we’re picking a stock, intuition often leads us astray. The trick is to determine when to use the different parts of the brain, and to do this, we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think.

Jonah Lehrer arms us with the tools we need, drawing on cutting-edge research as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of “deciders”âfrom airplane pilots and hedge fund investors to serial killers and poker players.

Lehrer shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence. His goal is to answer two questions that are of interest to just about anyone, from CEOs to firefighters: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can we make those decisions better?

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Product Details

Hardcover: 302 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; 1st Printing edition (2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618620117
ISBN-13: 978-0618620111
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (292 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Physiological Aspects
- #37 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Physiological Aspects
- #234 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Applied Psychology

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Customer Reviews

292

4.2 out of 5 stars

5 star		57%
4 star		21%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		8%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

Interesting but loose with analysis and evidence

By Sanpete on January 6, 2011

Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )

The topic is interesting: how do decisions get made, not only in the sense of what you think when you decide but in a more sausage-making sense of what goes on behind the scenes in the brain. Lehrer uses real-life examples, simple psychological experiments and very basic neurology to explain some highlights of current thinking about how the mind works and to draw out some practical lessons about decision making. Among the lessons: both reason and emotion are important; each has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on circumstances he outlines. One point he thinks will surprise many is that sometimes feelings are more accurate and helpful than rational analysis.

Some of the stories and experiments are pretty interesting in themselves. Special attention is given to cases where airline pilots have made good or bad decisions saving or costing lives. A harrowing mystery about why a radar blip was correctly intuited to be an enemy missile instead of a friendly plane is solved. Experimental results, some counterintuitive and some not, suggest expert analysis isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

The quality of the evidence and explanations for Lehrer's ideas is only so-so. While he does back up main points with evidence, and his explanations are generally easy to follow, his evidence doesn't always unambiguously support his views, and the explanations aren't always complete enough to give much additional insight over what you probably already know from experience. Sometimes references to neuroscience do no more than give a technical word for what remains an unexplained "black box."

Here are a few details about some issues I had with the book so, if you wish, you can better judge for yourself what kinds of problems it may or may not have for you.Read more ›

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Engaging Read

By Karen Lea Hansen on July 6, 2013

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Several years ago, I used to listen to hours of podcasts every week while sitting in an office creating employee schedules for Universal Studios. I especially loved podcasts involving books, authors and science. Although I have no idea which podcast I was listen to when I heard author Jonah Lehrer interviewed for his book, How We Decide, I remember hearing it made me immediately order his book from Amazon. I bought it and it has sat on my to-be-read shelf until I plucked it out last week when I was in the mood for non-fiction.

Lehrer's How We Decide is a look at how the brain functions in the decision making process. He delves into which part of the brain takes over during certain types of decisions, particularly decisions that involve a flood of information.

The book is part an analytical look at the science of decision making and part user manual. Lehrer provides concrete examples and sound reasoning as to which situations we should tune out or seek excess information. Lehrer explains how our brains can only hold a certain amount of information and sometimes an excess of options can hinder our ability to make the right choice. Sometime the right choice is going with your emotional or gut feeling, even if you can't readily explain why you feel that it's the right choice.

Some of the case studies in the book are completely fascinating. In particular, Lehrer discusses patients with Parkinson's Disease who when on a specific medication, thirteen percent will develop a compulsive gambling disorder. I'm not going to give away anymore, as the case study begs to be read!

Another study that was less shocking, but I feel very pertinent involved fifth graders who were given a test.Read more ›

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65 of 81 people found the following review helpful

Behavioral Psychology Made Exciting

By Herbert Gintis on January 25, 2009

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

"The science of decision-making," says Jonah Lehrer "remains a young science. Researchers are just beginning to understand how the brain makes up its mind." (p. 243) Unlike some of the dimmer acolytes of contemporary (as opposed to old-fashioned Skinnerian) behavioral psychology, Lehrer stresses the importance of reason in the human capacity to make successful decisions. "Simple problems require reason," he notes, and "novel problems also require reason." (p. 244-245) However, he correctly notes that hard problems draw on human capacities, especially the emotions and forms of knowledge that lie below the level of the conscious, that account for the stunning capacity of humans to make good decisions under stressful conditions.

Lehrer is a first-rate writer who takes great care in presenting his evidence. This is a really exciting book to read because of his manner of developing examples of human decision-making under stress and uncertainty. Because this is meant to be a popular book, not a research treatise, Lehrer uses examples rather than statistics, and he takes many creative but sometimes questionable leaps in interpreting the evidence. In the remainder of my review, I will stress the mistakes Lehrer makes because they are instructive. I do not want to dissuade the reader from buying this book---it is a great and insightful read, and the mistakes do not distort the message.

Almost all of Lehrer's questionable assertions are based on the "people are irrational" school of contemporary behavioral psychology. Thus, he calls loss aversion and the framing effects associated with prospect theory (the idea that we are risk-loving over losses and risk-averse over gains) "irrational," and he argues that it is "irrational" not to maximize expected value for lotteries with small stakes.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

More Bs from BS land

Isn't it bad enough that neuroscience and psychology have No knowledge of how "we" actually make decisions (what are the established mechanisms? How do they interact? Read more

Published 11 days ago by Stanley B. Klein

Five Stars

Brilliant. Hard to describe. A life changer.

Published 13 days ago by Cathy S. Harrison

almost too smart for his own good

It's an interesting read and Lehrer is very clever, almost too smart for his own good. However, this book should better be called WHY we decide, not HOW we decide. Read more

Published 15 days ago by Kindle Customer

A necessity for life choices.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to improve themselves and their life. By understanding how you make your own decisions and how others make their decisions it becomes... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Leadie J. Flowers

It's like catchup

The ice-cream cones on the cover made me think the book would be about choosing, but it really is about deciding in the broader sense. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Ilya Vedrashko

I kept expecting it to change and get better, but I felt like similar...

Meh. I kept expecting it to change and get better, but I felt like similar pieces of stories were just repeated. Read more

Published 1 month ago by M. Watkins

Great insights into decision making

Loved the multitude of examples presented and fascinated by the study of decision making in general. Am excited to read more about this topic.

Published 2 months ago by Margaret Hardin

How I decide

Good study, and may help the young as well as the mature.

Published 2 months ago by Max T. Nigh

Five Stars

Good book.

Published 3 months ago by javier madrigal luna

One of my all time favorite books. Easy to ready and will make you ...

One of my all time favorite books. Easy to ready and will make you look at your decision making processes differently along with providing you a better understanding of others... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Bryan Vossen