I wish I could recommend this book, as the topic is an interesting and important one, but I can't. It's simply not well written or organized.

Brafman treats the hot topic of cognitive biases and nonconscious factors that contribute to decision making, an area which has received enormous attention in recent years in cognitive and social psychology (Wegner, Wilson), and economics (Tversky).

I gather what he's trying to do is to present some of the basic findings to a lay audience. Either Brafman's wrong and he's dumbing it down WAYYYYY too much, or I'm wrong and we live in a nation of imbeciles.

His organization of the basic concepts is simplistic and reductive, and the basic facts of the research are concealed by several thick interpretive layers.

For readers who are not completely put off by scientific material -- who would be comfortable, say, with "A Brief History of Time" or Science Daily -- you will get much more from books like "The Illusion of Conscious Will" and "Strangers to Ourselves."