How We Decide- A Book Recommendation

[GrayMatter]

While you’re out Holiday shopping maybe you should pick up a book for yourself, How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. I bought the book because it had ice-cream cones on the cover. Call me a sucker for dessert.

The ice cream attracted me to the book, but I was hooked when Lehrer explained the purpose for the book: How do we as humans make decisions and how can we make those decisions better?

Lehrer’s style is similar to Malcom Gladwell’s, a nice mix of neuroscience and easy readability. All sorts of decision making aspects are covered from the snap decisions Gladwell explored in Blink, how emotions play a critical role in decisions, designing better artificial intelligence, how the best chess players and poker players rely on a combination of experience and emotion and finally tries to explain why you prefer Fruit Loops to Honey Nut Cheerios.

Most of the book isn’t tailored specifically to decision making in forensics, but it isn’t difficult to see how any knowledge of how the brain works could have clear benefits.

The book also discusses the role of emotions, bias and rationalization in decision making. The rational part of our brain is controlled by the prefrontal cortex, it can over rule the emotional aspects of decision making. The danger of the rational brain is justification. Rationalization will let us justify nearly any belief while disregarding and actively ignoring information that doesn’t fit.

Fascinating and relevant stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Decide-Jon ... 0618620117

He also has a blog on Wired.com that is interesting.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/frontal-cortex

[Boyd Baumgartner]

And for those who like the podcast scene, he's all over RadioLab

http://www.radiolab.org/people/jonah-lehrer/ - Links to all the podcasts where he's tagged

[g.]

GrayMatter,

I have to agree. A good friend recommended the book to me on the knowledge that I loved Malcolm Gladwell's stuff. It was a good book. While not all of it had corollaries to fingerprint issues, it was interesting to see how experts in other domains decide. I found it entertaining and very interesting, dotted with plenty of examples and research studies.

A similar book that I'd also recommend, which I think all people should read, especially if you have to go to the doctor, is How Doctors Think, by Groopman. Excellent book. Easy read.

g.