How We Decide

Apr 20, 2012 Steve Van Slyke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Steve by: Jim, Science & Inquiry Group

Shelves: kindle, science

I probably would not have read this book had it not been recommended by someone whose opinions I respect and the fact that the Kindle version was selling for only $2.99 at the time.

I'm really glad now that I didn't miss it. Most of the science books I choose to read are interesting but very few are also what I would call “entertaining”. This book was. As other reviewers have mentioned I too am leery when I start to read a book that immediately launches into a case study, because this can sometim...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites

As I am not a scientist like some other reviewers, I found this book to be quite enlightening. It was well-written and entertaining, as well.

Things I learned:

People need to use both rational thought and emotion to make the best decisions.

We need to make our own mistakes because that is how our brains get rewired not to do it again. Emotions turn mistakes into educational events and then use those lessons unconsciously.

We get cranky when we're hungry and tired because the prefrontal cortex is the...more

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Jun 18, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology

This is one of the most entertaining "pop-psychology" books that I've read. It is filled with anecdotes and stories that illustrate the main point of the book: the emotional side of our brains makes our decisions for us, and the rational side of our brains helps justify our decisions. Sometimes, depending on our rational thoughts can get in the way of making good decisions, and can actually be a detriment. A good example is the physicist who got interested in playing poker professionally. He und...more

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Dec 23, 2009 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: behavioural-economics, psychology

For the first half of this book I was rather annoyed. The problem was that I had heard most of the stories before and I was thinking that what I should do is write a ‘how to write a popular book on decision making’ style review. As with anyone who has found themselves on Good Reads for a while, I now can’t read a book without thinking, at the same time, how I’m going to review it.

You know, in this type of book it seems there has to be an American Football story, a plane crash or two or maybe ev...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Kaethe rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science, nonfiction

Update 3/5/2013: Publisher pulls book offers refunds

Meh. Lehrer just never really grabbed me, nor did the book ever seem to synthesize into a cohesive whole. In part I was vexed by the lack of female examples: only one woman shows up in the whole thing, and she's demonstrating thinking gone wrong. Perhaps I didn't like the reliance on economists' research. It's reasonable to talk about how are brains misunderstand the difficulty of ARMs, for example, but if you don't mention the way people were...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Jeffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

The brain is our defining organ, giving us not only self-awareness, but also the ability to wonder about ourselves, our world, and our own mortality. It is, nevertheless, a mystery why brains work better than others---why some of us make consistently good decisions, and others never seem to learn from their mistakes.

In How We Decide, author Jonah Lehrer explores our current understanding of the human mind. In well-crafted and engaging prose, he draws on examples from professional football player

...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Dina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a great review of neurobiology, filled with real-life examples. If you ever wondered what informs hunches, why certain things give you the heebie-jeebies "for no reason," or what neurotransmitters are involved in your "6th sense," this is the book for you.

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Apr 16, 2009 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: brainiacs

Recommended to Lisa by: NPR

How We Decide opens with a killer first sentence: "I was flying a Boeing 737 into Tokyo Narita International Airport when the left engine caught on fire." Right away, I am hooked. As the paragraph progresses, in heart thumping detail, my eyes flick back to the first sentence, to confirm that the author is indeed the pilot on this flight, and not a passenger.
Something strikes me as odd. Before reaching the end of the two paragraph opening page, I find myself flipping to the author photo on the b...more How We Decide opens with a killer first sentence: "I was flying a Boeing 737 into Tokyo Narita International Airport when the left engine caught on fire." Right away, I am hooked. As the paragraph progresses, in heart thumping detail, my eyes flick back to the first sentence, to confirm that the author is indeed the pilot on this flight, and not a passenger.
Something strikes me as odd. Before reaching the end of the two paragraph opening page, I find myself flipping to the author photo on the back flap of the book. The author looks like a young kid. If I were a bartender, I'd card him. No, in honor of the subject of the book, let me rephrase that; if I were a bartender, I'd decide to card him. As a reader, I decided to scan his credentials; editor at large for Seed magazine. Author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist. Graduate of Columbia University. Rhodes Scholar. Lab worker. Editor. Blogger. How did this kid find the time to also get a pilot's license? I read on.
The author is faced with a highly technical life or death decision; should he increase the throttle, or steepen the descent? He decides to gain velocity by faking a nose dive. He writes, "Immediately, I started to go faster. The problem was that I was headed straight for a suburb in Tokyo."
The next page, the gig is up. Turns out, our author is faking more than the nose dive; the anecdote is a sham. Paragraph seven reveals that our industrious author is recalling his experience in a flight simulator. Which leaves me to wonder, should I trust our narrator, or not? He is picking and choosing which details to share, as every author must, and doing it more skillfully than most. How am I to trust which details reveal a truth about decision making, and which details merely support a virtuoso performance? Esthetically, I am charmed. Intellectually, I am wary.
I venture with caution into the first chapter, which questions the Platonic notion that reason must triumph over emotion by declaring that, "without emotion, reason wouldn't exist at all," and supports this assertion with an entertaining, crowd pleasing play by play examples of gut decisions made by NFL quarterbacks. I'm not a football fan, so I still see the puppeteer's strings, but these promptly disappear as I am presented with an anecdote about Antonio Damasio, who is the neurologist version of Brett Favre. Is it geeky to be more taken by neurologists than quarterbacks? Not when you have MS.
I digress.
Demasio encountered a patient who had undergone brain surgery to remove a tumor in his frontal cortex; while this man's considerable intellect had survived intact, his life had subsequently disintegrated. He was fired from his corporate management position; his businesses failed, his marriage failed, he'd been taken in by a scam, he'd gone bankrupt. What struck Damasio, though, was that the fellow was able to describe his ruination without a trace of emotion. His neutral affect intrigued Damasio, who hooked the guy up to a machine which measures the activity of sweat glands in the palms to quantify emotional response. The man was presented with reliably provocative images; violence, porn, you get the picture. No sweat. The guy was impervious to any emotional provocation. While any of us armchair diagnosticians can easily imagine the man's emotional vacancy was the cause of the disintegration of his marriage, Damasio wondered the damage went further than that; perhaps this man's lack of emotions also led to his failures in the other, supposedly more rational aspects of his life. For there was one intriguing deficit the man complained of; since his surgery, he'd been chronically incapable of making even the smallest decision. We think of decision making as being a rational process, yet it was not this man's intellect that was stripped away, but his emotions; without reference to them, he was unable to choose a restaurant, much less a menu item, and this deficit was proving to be utterly debilitating. Damasio wondered if the emotions play a greater part in decision making than we generally give them credit for.
Our author does not leave us with a one note argument for trusting one's emotions in decision making. Instead, he illustrates cases for using one's rational mind as elegantly as he argues the cases for using one's emotional intuition. The key, of course, is to learn how to think about our thinking; to learn to recognize which decisions are best informed by reason, and which by emotion. Many of the experiments presented here were not new to me, but this core thesis promoting metacognition presented a fine uniting principal, and justified the retelling of these stories.
By the way, for those of you who would like to hear a surprisingly different take on the crash of United Airlines 232, it's worth viewing disc 3 of Errol Morris' First Person 2000 series. It tells the story of the same incident, from another point of view, designating a different hero and a different decision making process. This is not to say that Morris' perspective detracts from the perspective offered here; it simply serves as a delicious reminder that the facts can serve different masters. I will close by observing that the author, Jonah Lehrer, is a fellow goodreads member. One of his quotes, interestingly enough, is from Jane Austen:
"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken." — I imagine, then, that he would encourage you to seek other versions of these stories, as well.
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Apr 15, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: may-june-2009

With Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has cornered the market on popular studies of human behavior. But Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide holds its own with Gladwell, Stephen Pinker, Daniel Dennett, and the host of science writers increasingly focused on the complexities of the human brain. "There isn't any spectacular revelation, unique viewpoint or knockout final summation," noted the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post felt that Lehrer "does little to integrate

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Jan 20, 2013 Jay Connor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine” (reviewed last April); so when I saw his earlier book, “How We Decide,” in a remainder pile at Barnes & Noble, it wasn’t a tough decision. That might have been my last cavalier decision.

In “How we Decide” Lehrer puts our decision-making skills under the microscope – kind of like the thinking-person’s self-help manual, promising not only to explain how we decide, but also to help us do it better.

This is not exactly uncharted terrain. Malcolm Gladwel...more I really enjoyed Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine” (reviewed last April); so when I saw his earlier book, “How We Decide,” in a remainder pile at Barnes & Noble, it wasn’t a tough decision. That might have been my last cavalier decision.

In “How we Decide” Lehrer puts our decision-making skills under the microscope – kind of like the thinking-person’s self-help manual, promising not only to explain how we decide, but also to help us do it better.

This is not exactly uncharted terrain. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink,” explored a similar boundary between reason and intuition. But a key difference between the two books quickly emerges: Gladwell’s book took an external vantage point on its subject, drawing largely on observations from psychology and sociology, while Lehrer’s is an inside job, zooming in on the inner workings of the brain. We learn about the nucleus accumbens, spindle cells and the prefrontal cortex. Many of the experiments he recounts involve fMRI scans of brains in the process of making decisions (which, for the record, is a little like making a decision with your head stuck in a spinning clothes dryer).

Before you throw up your arms – albeit explaining decision-making on the scale of neurons makes for a challenging task – be assured that Lehrer handles it well and often circles back to his central theme: “Sometimes we need to reason through our options and carefully analyze the possibilities. And sometimes we need to listen to our emotions. As an introduction to the cognitive struggle between the brain’s “executive” rational centers and its more intuitive regions, “How We Decide” succeeds with strong storytelling. The neuroscience medicine goes down so smoothly because Lehrer introduces each concept with an arresting anecdote from a diverse array of fields: Tom Brady making a memorable pass in the 2002 Super Bowl; a Stanford particle physicist nearly winning the World Series of Poker; Al Haynes making a remarkable crash landing of a jetliner whose hydraulic system had failed entirely. These anecdotes are the hooks upon which we non-brain scientists can hang the lessons of “How We Decide.”

Lehrer’s insights go well beyond the name-that-neurotransmitter trivia. Perhaps the most interesting suggestion is that the more complex a decision, the more we should rely on our emotional brain, which is much better at synthesizing from past failures than our rational mind is at constructing future “right” decisions.
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Jan 01, 2013 Brendan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, psychology

I read Lehrer's "How We Decide" as the latest installment in my recent fascination with written research on the human brain. Lehrer performs a meta-analysis of several studies performed on human cognition and attempts to shed light on how exactly we as a species leverage different regions of the brain to make decisions. Lehrer describes the human cognitive system as a decision-making spectrum where one end represents decisions we make instinctually, while the other end represents decisions we ra...more I read Lehrer's "How We Decide" as the latest installment in my recent fascination with written research on the human brain. Lehrer performs a meta-analysis of several studies performed on human cognition and attempts to shed light on how exactly we as a species leverage different regions of the brain to make decisions. Lehrer describes the human cognitive system as a decision-making spectrum where one end represents decisions we make instinctually, while the other end represents decisions we rationalize.

Instinctual decisions are made by a more primitve region of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This region of the brain deals with our emotions and is also closely tied to our dopamine-releasing self-reward system. We often associate decisions made by the ACC as "coming from the gut."

In conctrast, rationalized decisions come from the prefrontal cortex, a much more recent evolutionary development of the human brain. Making rational decisions requires the brain to process and analyze a set of sensory input data and determine a reaction. While this is the slower means of making a decision, it allows us to make very complicated, educated choices and it distinguishes us from our mammalian cousins.

When we practice solving problems through repetitive training, we push the decision-making from the prefrontal cortex to the ACC. This is the act of creating habits and helps explain why a pilot can process a huge amount of complex data and take just the right steps to save a doomed airplane full of passengers through a series of "gut" decisions.

Overusing the ACC leads to emotionally-driven, compulsory decisions. Overusing the prefrontal cortex leads to decision paralysis. Lehrer suggests that simply being aware of how we think -- whether we're relying on the ACC or the prefrontal cortex -- can lead us to make better decisions.

"How We Decide" was scientific and technical without being dry or inaccessible by a reader with limited nerological knowledge such as me. Reading the book has undoubtedly changed the way I think about thinking, and I firmly believe I can improve many of my own bad decision-making habits (particularly my issue with indecision) with this added perspective. Interested in the human min? Read this.(less)

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Dec 24, 2012 Erika RS rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not surprisingly, How We Decide has a fair amount of overlap with other popular books about the mind including some that I have read ( Blink , The Time Paradox , and The Paradox of Choice ). However, despite an overlap in subject matter and in the studies cited, I feel like this book is among the better of these types of books.

In addition to presenting conclusions based on psychological studies, Lehrer uses information we have gained from studying the brain to build a description of how decision...more Not surprisingly, How We Decide has a fair amount of overlap with other popular books about the mind including some that I have read ( Blink , The Time Paradox , and The Paradox of Choice ). However, despite an overlap in subject matter and in the studies cited, I feel like this book is among the better of these types of books.

In addition to presenting conclusions based on psychological studies, Lehrer uses information we have gained from studying the brain to build a description of how decision making works. The main tension when making decisions is between the emotional brain and the rational brain. Actually, that is a simplification. Both systems consist of multiple systems which may, in turn, disagree with each other. On the other side of the coin, both the emotional brain are really part of the same system and influence each other. But as a mental model, this two part view of the brain is instructive.

The details are interesting, but in the hopes of keeping things concise, I will cut to the chase. The emotional brain is good at taking in a lot of information and matching it against past experience. It's good for deciding personal preferences or making decisions in areas where you have a lot of experience. The rational brain is good at dealing with new experiences but can only take in a small amount of information. It's good at creating new solutions or making decisions when there are only a small number of factors to consider (perhaps as little as a dozen total across the possibilities).

When they work well, these two systems help each other, with the emotional brain internalizing when decisions in certain contexts lead to good and bad outcomes and the rational brain deciding when something new needs to be tried. When either of these systems fails completely (as happens with some types of brain trauma), people become unable to function independently Those who lose rational brain functionality become unable to make considered decisions. Those who lose emotional brain functionality become unable to make decisions at all.

Lehrer states in his conclusion that the most important thing you should take from this book is that you should think about thinking. This allows you to avoid stupid errors that arise from predictable brain errors (errors such as loss aversion). It also allows you to improve the working of your brain over time.

Another key thing to take from How We Decide is the idea that certainty is self defeating if you want to use your brain effectively. Certainty quiets the internal dissent that your various brain parts generate and leads to bad decisions. As Lehrer says:

The only way to counteract the bias for certainty is to encourage some inner dissonance. We must force ourselves to think about the information we don't want to think about, to pay attention to the data that disturbs our entrenched beliefs. We we start censoring our minds, turning of those brain areas that contradict our assumptions, we end up ignoring relevant evidence. ...

But the certainty trap is not inevitable. We can take steps to prevent ourselves from shutting down our minds' argument too soon. We can consciously correct for this innate tendency. And if those steps fail, we can create decision-making environments that help us better entertain competing hypotheses. ...

when making decisions, actively resist the urge to suppress the argument. Instead, take time to listen to what all the different brain areas have to say. Good decisions rarely emerge from a false consensus.

So spend some time thinking about thinking. (less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Loy Machedo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer.

My journey into the world of the Grey Matter started with Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and then moved into Freewill by Sam Harris, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Predictably Irrational by Dan Airely, Quiet by Susan Cain, Incognito by David Eagleman and Emotional Intelligence by Travis Bradberry. And when I thought I knew a little bit, in comes 27 year old Author - Jonah Lehrer with his Mind-Boggling Contribution to the world of Neuros...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Mandi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: post-peace-corps

I read this book in about a week because, when I first started reading it, I found it to be so interesting that I wanted to read it all right away. However, the more I read, the more I disliked the book. Most of what is mentioned are things that I remember studying in high school psychology class. Still, I did like when the author approached the different studies as a journalist and delivered the details of interesting evidence. What I did not like was when he drew his own conclusions, because I...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Wendy Yu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author focuses on the "emotion" versus "rationality" divide in decision-making, choosing anecdotes and studies that explore how people respond to situations either with their gut or through rationalizing. Some people panic and fail to use their heads (running from fire, piloting a plane), but others over-rationalize and make poor decisions compared to just going with their "good feelings" (stocks, choosing the best jam, choosing the best car when a lot of information is available). The first...more

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Jul 18, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are a number of popular press books that review the state of cognitive science and end up citing the same research, using the same examples, telling the same stories, forming the same conclusions. It’s information worth rehashing, but is rehash nonetheless. Because Lehrer is a journalist, not a scientist, I expected more of the same. He did go over some of the same information, but he also did something new to me that made this book worth reading. He did a decent job of trying to close the...more There are a number of popular press books that review the state of cognitive science and end up citing the same research, using the same examples, telling the same stories, forming the same conclusions. It’s information worth rehashing, but is rehash nonetheless. Because Lehrer is a journalist, not a scientist, I expected more of the same. He did go over some of the same information, but he also did something new to me that made this book worth reading. He did a decent job of trying to close the intellect-emotion circle, reconciling the paradoxical relationship between pure reason and emotional instincts. I’ve heard a number of authors pay homage to the “intelligence” of intuitive thought—things like gut instinct, intuition, reflexive responses—all stuff I tend to distrust. Yes, intuition has many successes and can outperform reason at times, even at critical times. But these authors make little effort to explain the phenomenon. It ends up being presented as a kind of faith-based science, a miracle of our brilliant neural anatomy. My “intuition” is to reject that and I think poorly of books like Blink that make such a submission. But Lehrer tries to get behind the science that explains intuition. He also discusses how reason practiced in the complete absence of emotion can be impotent. Emotion sometimes carries with it motivation and desire and a call to action, while reason can be timelessly pensive and coldly indifferent. Reason can also turn out to be too exhaustive a process, the cost of which can exceed the benefit when dealing with minor decisions, or major decision with short deadlines.

But there are two major problems with intuition, only one of which Lehrer addresses. He is clear that intuition can lead us down the wrong path because it is subject to an array of cognitive biases. What he doesn’t discuss is that intuition is an attractive nuisance—it’s enticing because it’s so easy. Seat-of-the-pants decision-making saves us the effort of having to think out a problem, leaving us all the more susceptible to cognitive biases. In his brilliant essay Solitude and Leadership, William Deresiewicz said, “I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. …I need time to think about it… to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing.”

Lehrer attempts to tidy up the contradiction between reason and emotion by recommending that we listen to our instincts but that we also scrutinize them and test them for biases, and that we also recognize the limitations of reason. So Star Trek’s Mr. Spok had it all wrong. He should not have suppressed his human side, but embraced it. …But, if he were perfectly logical, wouldn’t he have recognized that and acted more human? Isn’t it purely rational to factor in some degree of irrationality into our most rational thoughts? The circle remains unclosed.
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Jun 14, 2012 Mike Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pop-social-science, philosophy

The author examines, in light of current research in psychology, what role our emotions play in our decision making capabilities. In particular, he sets out to debunk the idea that our rational mind is the driver of our good decisions, while our emotions only serve to interfere. In fact, that relationship is much more complicated, as our emotional responses work in tandem with our rational minds to produce decisions, in a way that we are only beginning to understand. Lehrer discusses how experts...more The author examines, in light of current research in psychology, what role our emotions play in our decision making capabilities. In particular, he sets out to debunk the idea that our rational mind is the driver of our good decisions, while our emotions only serve to interfere. In fact, that relationship is much more complicated, as our emotional responses work in tandem with our rational minds to produce decisions, in a way that we are only beginning to understand. Lehrer discusses how experts in various fields make life-or-death decisions, and then backtracks from those stories to the more mundane everyday decision making that dots our lives, and backs it all up with appropriate usage of generally first-rate social-psychological studies.

I do have two, related, complaints about the book, however. First, the research that he cites is often very new, with poorly understood mechanisms; it will be a long time before we really understand decision making as well as Lehrer implies that we already do. Second, the connections between cognitive psychology (which largely examines people in a laboratory setting to determine how people act under different circumstances) and neurology (that is the specific chemical and neurological processes in the brain that trigger and thereby cause us and/or allow us to act in a certain way) are tentative at best. Lehrer tries to draw hard connections between human behavior and brain chemistry--and he isn't on good standing when he does so.

But I would recommend it, as a primer in this kind of research or to anyone who is interested particularly in the philosophical debate between rationality and emotion. Moreover, given this book, one should never read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Gladwell discusses a similar topic, but comes to the conclusion that our instant-responses are almost always correct--despite the fact that the studies he himself cites do not support that conclusion. Lehrer is much more realistic in his analysis and appropriate in his conclusions.
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Apr 03, 2012 Jill Furedy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know I overthink things, but now I know in which cases that helps my decision making and in which cases it hurts. Not that I'm convinced I'll be able to apply that in practice, but perhaps it will help me to know it's okay to follow my instinct in some instances. I found this book an easier and quicker read than I anticipated (Paradox of Choice was interesting at first, but then dragged and got repetitious), so I was happy with that. I like case studies as long as the are making a cohesive poi...more I know I overthink things, but now I know in which cases that helps my decision making and in which cases it hurts. Not that I'm convinced I'll be able to apply that in practice, but perhaps it will help me to know it's okay to follow my instinct in some instances. I found this book an easier and quicker read than I anticipated (Paradox of Choice was interesting at first, but then dragged and got repetitious), so I was happy with that. I like case studies as long as the are making a cohesive point, which I felt these did. I had heard some of these studies before, but they helped to support the cases being made. And most of the studies referenced caught my interest, like the radar blip, the firefighters on the hill, the strawberry jam and the cat posters, and the examples of when brain functioning goes terribly wrong. Although I didn't care for the explanations on poker's game play (don't play, don't care and don't need to know that much to understand the decision making process) and the Egyptian invasion story threw me off at first since more than one person was involved in the decision making. Towards the end of the book, I started wondering whether or not he was going to bring it all together with just a conclusion or give us some recommendations on how we should be making decisions. I wanted suggestions on how to improve myself, not a wrap up. He gave a summary of the key points, with a few declarative statements that sufficed for pointing us in the right direction, but kept it brief. I might have to reread a few sections to better understand them in context of the lessons that can be applied to daily life. That I'm willing to reread anything is in itself a validation of the author's storytelling, since I prefer fiction to nonfiction. It's categorized as a psychology/business book, but I'm guessing it's familiar territory for anyone who has studied psychology for long. But for me, it was a good introduction to some areas of the brain and their functions, while also keeping me entertained.(less)

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Apr 03, 2012 Ms.pegasus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Amateur pilots; those interested in a neuroscience introduction, but prepared to explore further

Recommended to Ms.pegasus by: Kevin of Goodreads list of "to read"

Shelves: neuroscience, nonfiction

Intuition is frequently dismissed as irrational, an impulse based on emotion. Lehrer argues that despite centuries of philosophical commentary about the rational, it is emotion that drives much of our decision-making. Moreover, he practices what he preaches. The opening chapters are drawn from real life: Tom Brady at the 2002 Super Bowl; radar operator Lt. Commander Michael Riley stationed on the HMS Gloucester off the coast of Kuwait in 1991; smoke-jumper Wag Dodge caught in a deadly Montana fo...more Intuition is frequently dismissed as irrational, an impulse based on emotion. Lehrer argues that despite centuries of philosophical commentary about the rational, it is emotion that drives much of our decision-making. Moreover, he practices what he preaches. The opening chapters are drawn from real life: Tom Brady at the 2002 Super Bowl; radar operator Lt. Commander Michael Riley stationed on the HMS Gloucester off the coast of Kuwait in 1991; smoke-jumper Wag Dodge caught in a deadly Montana forest fire on August 5, 1949, and United Airlines captain Al Haynes on Flight #232 on route to Chicago on July 19, 1989 when the hydraulics fail in his aircraft. It is no accident that these emotionally charged situations are some of the most vivid and memorable parts of the book. The numerous psychological experiments, many of them classics, seem pale by comparison.

We assume that good decisions are the result of logic triumphing over emotional distractions. Lehrer examines that assumption. He shows how emotion shapes ethical behaviors such as altruism and empathy. Sociopaths lack the capacity for emotion, and therefore have no ethical guidelines. They can rationalize any atrocity. “Thinking outside the box,” may actually be the emotional brain selecting a previously unrelated set of facts and discovering a new and powerful pattern. In such cases, too many facts can actually impede the decision-making pathway.

Lehrer's focus is on psychological studies and neuro-anatomy. In this way, he is able to simplify his narrative and make a more convincing case to the reader. For example, his description of Parkinson's Disease touches briefly on the results of decreased dopamine production. His choice is to describe in detail the symptoms of the disease, and the gambling addiction behaviors of those treated with an overdose of dopamine receptor agonists. He does not wander into a discussion of how the circuit of dopamine production, transport, and absorption work to simultaneously break down impulse control and stimulate thrill-seeking behaviors. The details of cell chemistry are not his focus of interest. This is both the strength and weakness of the book. It is intriguing to discover unexpected human behaviors, but observation can often lead to convenient but erroneous inferences. It might be interesting to poll readers of this book about the inferences they have drawn. How would you proceed to test them? The purpose of this book is to summarize some of the astonishing things we think we know. The closing chapters on applying the book toward making better decisions run on the fumes of tautology. Emotional decisions are good until they stop being good.

In conclusion, those looking for a deeper look at the science will find this a tantalizing introduction – an appetizer rather than a meal.
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Nov 07, 2011 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Everyone should read this book. First of all, it's easy to read. Lehrer has a smooth style and moves easily from examples to the backup science. Although he may not seem to deal with something you are particularly interested in (he has an entire chapter on playing poker), as you read, you find that what he has written DOES pertain to you and your decision-making process.

One of the things I found most fascinating is that people make rational decisions when they don't have very much information an...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfic-science

An accessible, fun book on behavioral psychology, with forays into neuroscience. Lehrer's main thesis is that the "irrational"/"emotional" parts of the human brain work in collaboration with the "rational" parts in decision-making, the former exerting a strong, hidden influence on split-second choices, spending habits, political viewpoints, valuation of consumer goods, and even supposedly logical behaviors like morality. Both aspects of the mind depend on each other for optimal function, but eac...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Bela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have always had an interest in understanding how the human mind works, so when I saw this book at the airport, I had to pick it up. After all, what else was I going to do on a five hour plan ride from Orlando to LA? This book definitely does not have a story. It's more of a hybrid between a psychology text book and real life case studies. Lehrer relates decision making to things that "normal" people are interested in, like sports, poker, wine, food, etc, and I think that is what makes this a p...more I have always had an interest in understanding how the human mind works, so when I saw this book at the airport, I had to pick it up. After all, what else was I going to do on a five hour plan ride from Orlando to LA? This book definitely does not have a story. It's more of a hybrid between a psychology text book and real life case studies. Lehrer relates decision making to things that "normal" people are interested in, like sports, poker, wine, food, etc, and I think that is what makes this a page-turner.

There are so many things about the human mind that fascinate me, but the what fascinates me the most is its ability to adapt. How else do you think evolution happened? The brain learned that it didn't need certain body parts and needed other ones and after an extremely long period of changes, here we are, the human being. I was watching a documentary about the first year of a child's life and how helpless the human baby is compared to any other mammal infant. But it is because of this helpless state, the brain is able to absorb so many different things, like language, how to interact with others, and to think rationally and emotionally at the same time. This is what makes us human. Lehrer tries to explain that emotions are actually a good thing (how many times does your significant other tell you you're being "too" emotional? - tell him to read this book!). Emotions combined with rational thinking leads to the best decisions. He also explains phenomenons like that feeling is when you just know something is right, and why it's okay you don't know why you feel that way. Sometimes it's better not to think about things to much: for example, there was a study done to test flavors of jam. When people were asked to pick the one the liked the best, the pick Brand A, but when they were asked to pick the brand they liked the best and WHY they liked it the best, they ended up picking a completely different brand. Sometimes it's better just to rely on instinct than on rationality, and of course, vice versa! Lehrer covers his ass, and also discusses why trusting only your emotions isn't always the right thing to do, by giving us a look into a gambling addict's mind. The gambler keeps thinking that he is going to win because he has a feeling, but if he followed his rational mind, he would know to get out. At the end of the day, he tries to say that although you need both the rational and emotional mind, knowing when to use each one is the best way to become a better decision maker.

I would recommend reading this book if you have any interest in trying to understand consumer behavior (that's why I picked up this book). Understanding why the mind works the way it does is that best way to learn how to influence that mind. Don't think I'm evil for saying that - that's just how marketing works and why it's a science. =)(less)

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Jul 09, 2011 Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I have to stop reading (listening to) these kinds of books (i.e. books in which an author uses psychological/neurological/behavioral economics research to explain how humans do something -- decide, pay attention, seek happiness, etc.). This one follows a similar pattern as the rest of them, discussing a lot of the same classic and newer experiments, then trying to relate the results to how we make decisions.

While that part has gotten repetitive for me, the author does come to some feasi...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How many decisions do you make a day? Do you ever stop and think about HOW you made them? Even if you try, you probably can't accurately figure it out much of the time - but thanks to brain imaging, advancing science, and curious scientists, we're starting to find out more about how it all comes together. Lest it sound like a dry book of case studies or brain anatomy, fret not - Jonah Lehrer balances the personal experiences of people in decision-making scenarios (from pro athletes to pilots los...more

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May 24, 2011 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: neuroscience, decision-making, self-help

Fascinating read that fluidly blends the latest studies in neuroscience with real-life examples, creative ideas and practical applications. Decision-making is our daily blessing and curse. Nobody makes perfect decisions all the time. However, this book argues that becoming self-aware of the logical and emotional parts of your brain can empower people with better decision-making skills and intuition. In fact, both rational thoughts originating from intentional considerations and innate hunches of...more

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May 05, 2011 Drew Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decision Making and cognitive development is a topic I enjoy reading about. Thinking about how we think is an important skill. Other books in this genre I have read include Group Think, Predictably Irrational, Talent Code, and Blink. While this covered some of the same ground and in some cases reviewed the same research, this was as good as any of the other books in the category. As Dumbledorf tells Harry Potter: we are defined by our decisions, not our abilities. Yet we don’t understand our own...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dan, Andrew

Recommended to Katherine by: Paul Meckleberg

This was an excellent, accessible popular science book where the author actually knows what he's talking about (Tara Parker-Pope's For Better, I'm looking at you). The progression of the book made sense, examining the strengths and weaknesses of emotional and rational decision-making each in turn. The different points were illustrated with several real-world examples and tied to research studies, and the conclusions at the end were presented in a useful manner.

It's basically this kind of stuff...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Henry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Title: How We Decide
Author: Jonah Lehrer

How We Decide is a deep investigation of (for a lack of better words) how we decide. It provides the reader with an extensive, analytical view of how certain parts of the brain are triggered based on multiple scenarios. The reader gets a better understanding of what goes on when he or she make decisions, such as considering other people's thoughts and opinions when making his or her own decisions to maximize his or her profit. It combines thoughtful reason...more Title: How We Decide
Author: Jonah Lehrer

How We Decide is a deep investigation of (for a lack of better words) how we decide. It provides the reader with an extensive, analytical view of how certain parts of the brain are triggered based on multiple scenarios. The reader gets a better understanding of what goes on when he or she make decisions, such as considering other people's thoughts and opinions when making his or her own decisions to maximize his or her profit. It combines thoughtful reasoning and spices of witty humor on occasional parts. In the next excerpt, Jonah Lehrer discusses an experiment that was seemingly testing the long-term memory of average individuals, when in fact was testing the tendencies of individuals when put under pressure.

"When the results from the two different memory groups were tallied, the scientists observed a striking shift in behavior. Fifty-nine percent of people trying to remember seven digits chose the cake, compared to only 37 percent of the two-digit subjects. Distracting the brain with a challenging memory task made a person more likely to give in to temptation and choose the calorie-dense dessert. (The premise is that German chocolate cake is to adults what marshmallows are to four-year-olds.) The subjects' self-control was overwhelmed by five extra numbers... According to the Stanford scientists who designed the experiment, the efforts required to memorized seven digits drew cognitive resources away from the part of the brain that normally controls emotional urges."

In this excerpt, Lehrer provides one of the many analyses of how individuals act the way they do and adds a hint of witty humor into it to keep the reader entertained. How We Decide is a thoroughly interesting book and I would fully recommend it to anybody who has lots of spare time (as this is a 259-page book, not including the extra 43 pages of acknowledgements, notes, and bibliography) and is willing to spend his or her time understanding... how we decide.
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Mar 11, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A decision is not something that one can avoid in life. People are faced with decisions every day. Whether it is what shirt to wear that day or who to throw the game winning pass to on a football field, what one chooses can have a big influence on the outcome of the situation. Jonah Lehrer wrote the book How We Decide in 2009. He based the concept of this book around two main questions asked by a variety of people: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can we make those decisions bette...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really fascinating book on how our brains work when we make decisions. With today's advanced medical technology, they can wire the brain up and watch what parts are activated by what types of decisions people make. From serial killers, who only use the rational part of the brain (by the way) the emotional side is damaged, to how we believe in politics, why we buy things, how dictators become that way, playing the stock market and many others. I was so intrigued. I actually took notes so I could...more

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Decision making	6	76	Nov 07, 2012 09:14pm
Science and Inquiry: How We Decide	20	108	Aug 23, 2012 05:14am

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