Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgement

by Richard E. Nisbett, Lee Ross

Book by Richard E Nisbett, Lee Ross

Genres: Psychology, Science, Nonfiction

334 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1980

About the author

Richard E. Nisbett is one of the world's most respected psychologists. His work focuses on issues in social psychology and cognitive science. He has received the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from the American Psychological Association and many other national and international awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. His book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently . . . and Why won the William James Award of the American Psychological Association. That book, as well as Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count and Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking have been translated into multiple languages. His newest book is Thinking: A Memoir.

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors explore how humans use decision making shortcuts (otherwise referred to as "heuristics"). Over time, humans, according to the authors, humans have developed decision making shortcuts to make decisions in (what another theorist calls) "fast and frugal ways."

Example? "The vividness criterion." Here, we use dramatic examples to shape our decisions. This is otherwise referred to as the "fallacy of the dramatic illustration." People often do not think through whether the dramatic instance is really typical. As a result, they may make decisins on the basis of poor information.

A fine book that sheds light on how we make decisions.