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How We Decide Paperback – Jan. 14 2010
by
Jonah Lehrer
(Author)
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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 reason—and 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”—from 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?
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 reason—and 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”—from 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?
- ISBN-100547247990
- ISBN-13978-0547247991
- EditionReprint
- PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
- Publication dateJan. 14 2010
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions13.97 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
- Print length320 pages
Product description
Review
“Cash or credit? Punt or go for first down? Deal or no deal? Life is filled with puzzling choices. Reporting from the frontiers of neuroscience and armed with riveting case studies of how pilots, quarterbacks, and others act under fire, Jonah Lehrer presents a dazzlingly authoritative and accessible account of how we make decisions, what’s happening in our heads as we do so, and how we might all become better ‘deciders.’ Luckily, this one’s a no-brainer: Read this book.”—Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
"Over the past two decades, research in neuroscience and behavioral economics has revolutionized our understanding of human decision making. Jonah Lehrer brings it all together in this insightful and enjoyable book, giving readers the information they need to make the smartest decisions.”—Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes’ Error and Looking for Spinoza
“Jonah Lehrer ingeniously weaves neuroscience, sports, war, psychology, and politics into a fascinating tale of human decision making. In the process, he makes us much wiser.”—Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational
“Should we go with instinct or analysis? The answer, Lehrer explains, in this smart and delightfully readable book, is that it depends on the situation. Knowing which method works best in which case is not just useful but fascinating. Lehrer proves once again that he’s a master storyteller and one of the best guides to the practical lessons from new neuroscience.”—Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail
“As Lehrer describes in fluid prose, the brain’s reasoning centers are easily fooled, often making judgments based on nonrational factors like presentation (a sales pitch or packaging)...Lehrer is a delight to read, and this is a fascinating book (some of which appeared recently, in a slightly different form, in the New Yorker) that will help everyone better understand themselves and their decision making.” —Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"Over the past two decades, research in neuroscience and behavioral economics has revolutionized our understanding of human decision making. Jonah Lehrer brings it all together in this insightful and enjoyable book, giving readers the information they need to make the smartest decisions.”—Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes’ Error and Looking for Spinoza
“Jonah Lehrer ingeniously weaves neuroscience, sports, war, psychology, and politics into a fascinating tale of human decision making. In the process, he makes us much wiser.”—Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational
“Should we go with instinct or analysis? The answer, Lehrer explains, in this smart and delightfully readable book, is that it depends on the situation. Knowing which method works best in which case is not just useful but fascinating. Lehrer proves once again that he’s a master storyteller and one of the best guides to the practical lessons from new neuroscience.”—Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail
“As Lehrer describes in fluid prose, the brain’s reasoning centers are easily fooled, often making judgments based on nonrational factors like presentation (a sales pitch or packaging)...Lehrer is a delight to read, and this is a fascinating book (some of which appeared recently, in a slightly different form, in the New Yorker) that will help everyone better understand themselves and their decision making.” —Publisher's Weekly, starred review
From the Back Cover
Praise for Jonah Lehrer and How We Decide ?Jonah Lehrer is a brilliant young writer. His clear and vivid writing?incisive and thoughtful, yet sensitive and modest?is a special pleasure.?Oliver Sacks ?Cash or credit? Punt or go for first down? Deal or no deal? Life is filled with puzzling choices. Reporting from the frontiers of neuroscience and armed with riveting case studies of how pilots, quarterbacks, and others act under fire, Jonah Lehrer presents a dazzlingly authoritative and accessible account of how we make decisions, whats happening in our heads as we do so, and how we might all become better ?deciders. Luckily, this ones a no-brainer: Read this book.?Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) ?Over the past two decades, research in neuroscience and behavioral economics has revolutionized our understanding of human decision making. Jonah Lehrer brings it all together in this insightful and enjoyable book, giving readers the information they need to make the smartest decisions.?Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes Error and Looking for Spinoza ?Jonah Lehrer ingeniously weaves neuroscience, sports, war, psychology, and politics into a fascinatingtale of human decision making. In the process, he makes us much wiser.?Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational ?Should we go with instinct or analysis? The answer, Lehrer explains, in this smart and delightfully readable book, is that it depends on the situation. Knowing which method works best in which case is not just useful but fascinating. Lehrer proves once again that hes a master storyteller and one of the best guides to the practical lessons from new neuroscience.?Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail ?An inviting, high-velocity ride through our most treasured mental act?deciding. This is truly one of the most accessible and richly informed books on human choice. Its a must-read for anyone interested in the human mind and how cutting-edge research changes the way we think about ourselves. A marvelous success.?Read Montague, Brown Foundation Professor of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine
About the Author
Jonah Lehrer is a Contributing Editor at Wired and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He writes the Head Case column for The Wall Street Journal and regularly appears on WNYC’s Radiolab. His writing has also appeared in Nature, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American and Outside. He’s the author of two previous books, Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide. He graduated from Columbia University and attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The quick decisions made by a quarterback on a football field provide a window into the inner workings of the brain. In the space of a few frenetic seconds, before a linebacker crushes him into the ground, an NFL quarterback has to make a series of hard choices. The pocket is collapsing around him — the pocket begins to collapse before it exists — but he can’t flinch or wince. His eyes must stay focused downfield, looking for some meaningful sign amid the action, an open man on a crowded field. Throwing the ball is the easy part.
These passing decisions happen so fast they don’t even seem like decisions. We are used to seeing football on television, captured by the cameras far above the grassy stage. From this distant perspective, the players appear to be moving in some sort of violent ballet; the sport looks exquisitely choreographed. You can see the receivers spread the zone and watch the pocket slowly disintegrate. It’s easy to detect the weak spots of the defense and find the target with man-on-man coverage. You can tell which linebackers bought the play-action fake and see the cornerback racing in on the blitz. When you watch the game from this omniscient angle — coaches call it "the eye in the sky" — it appears as if the quarterback is simply following orders, as if he knows where he is going to throw the ball before the play begins.
Product details
- Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Reprint edition (Jan. 14 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0547247990
- ISBN-13 : 978-0547247991
- Item weight : 295 g
- Dimensions : 13.97 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #411,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13 in Psychology of Decision-Making
- #157 in Neuropsychology Textbooks
- #157 in Anatomy & Physiology Textbooks
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Jonah Lehrer is the author of A Book About Love, Imagine, How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist. He graduated from Columbia University and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He's written for The New Yorker, Nature, The New York Times Magazine and many other publications.
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Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 11, 2019
Verified Purchase
It said a used book when I bought it but it looks like it wasn't used. My shipment came on time and I'm very happy with my purchase ! Thank you !
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely and great. Thank you!
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 11, 2019
It said a used book when I bought it but it looks like it wasn't used. My shipment came on time and I'm very happy with my purchase ! Thank you !
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 11, 2019
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Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 26, 2013
Verified Purchase
We spend our whole life trying to figure out how our mind works. This book is an open door to understand the mechanic of it. Really enjoyable and full of simple and meaningful experiments. A must read.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 5, 2012
This book is well written and easy to understand. Complicated science of the activity of the brain and what affects our brain activity is presented in lay terminology and supported by interesting stories and examples.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 20, 2009
Verified Purchase
This is an excellent, authoritative yet entertaining text on a complex and perhaps controversial topic. The author is to be commended for his masterful treatment of the complexities and to his impact on the non-professional reader.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 17, 2009
With regard to neuroscience, I am the among non-scholars who have a keen interest in what the brain and mind are and how they function, and am especially interested in how decisions are made. In recent years, I have read a variety of books that have helped me to increase my knowledge in these specific areas. They include William Calvin's How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then And Now, Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On The Matter Of The Mind, Guy Claxton's Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less, Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and most recently, Torkel Klingberg's The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. I am grateful to these and other volumes for increasing my understanding of the decision-making process while realizing that is still so much more that I need to know. Hence my interest in Jonah Lehrer's book, How We Decide.
In the Introduction after sharing an experience aboard a simulated flight landing at Tokyo Narita International Airport, Lehrer observes: "In the end, the difference between landing my plane in one piece and my dying in a fiery crash came down to a single decision made in the panicked moments after the engine fire...This book is about how we make decisions. It's about airline pilots, NFL quarterbacks, television directors, poker players, professional investors, and serial killers...[Ever since the ancient Greeks, assumptions about decision making have revolved around a single theme: humans are ration.] There's only one problem with this assumption of human rationality: It's not how the brain works...We can look inside the brain and see how humans think: the black box has been broken open. It turns out we weren't designed to be rational creatures...Whenever someone makes a decision, the brain is awash in feeling, driven by its inexplicable passions. Even when a person tries to be reasonable and restrained, these emotional impulses secretly influence judgment...Knowing how the mind [i.e. `a powerful biological machine'] works is useful knowledge, since it shows us how to get the most out of the machine. But the brain doesn't exist in a vacuum; all decisions are made in the context of the real world."
Then in the Coda, Lehrer re-visits the approach into the Tokyo airport that, we now realize, serves as the central metaphor in his book. "When the onboard computers and pilots properly interact, it's an ideal model for decision-making. The rational brain (the pilot) and the emotional brain (the cockpit computers) exist in perfect equilibrium, each system focusing on those areas in which it has a comparative advantage. The reason planes are so safe, areas in which it has a competitive advantage. The reason planes are so safe, even though both the pilot and the autopilot are fallible, is that both systems are constantly working to correct each other. Mistakes are fixed before they spiral out of control." The safe landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on January 15th offers a more recent example of what Lehrer calls "perfect equilibrium" between Captain Chesley ("Sully") Sullenberger and the computers aboard the Airbus A320.
There are many valuable insights within Lehrer's narrative. Here are several that caught my eye, albeit quoted out of context.
"The process of thinking requires feeling, for feelings are what let us understand all the information that we can't directly comprehend. Reason without emotion is impotent." (Page 26)
"Unless you experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong, your brain will never revise its models. Before your neurons can succeed, they must repeatedly fail. There are no shortcuts for this painstaking process." (Page 54)
"The ability to supervise itself, to exercise authority over its own decision-making process, is one of the most mysterious talents of the human brain. Such a mental maneuver is known as executive control, since thoughts are directed from the tip down, like a CEO issuing orders." (Page 116)
"As it happens, some of our most important decisions are about how to treat other people. The human being is a social animal, endowed with a brain that shapes social behavior. By understanding how the brain makes these decisions, we can gain insight into one of the most unique aspects of human nature: morality." (Page 166) Lehrer devotes all of Chapter 6, The Mortal Mind, to this important "aspect." For
example:
"At its core, moral decision-making is about sympathy. We abhor violence because we know violence hurts. We treat others fairly because we know what it feels like to be treated unfairly. We reject suffering because we can imagine what it's like to suffer. Our minds naturally bind us together, so we can't help but follow the advice of Luke: `And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Page 180)
Actually, I highlighted dozens of other passages but this review is already longer than I originally intended so I will quote no others. Because I think so highly of this book, I wanted to allow Lehrer sufficient opportunity to share at least a few of his thoughts with those who read this review. Credit him with a brilliant achievement: Enabling his readers to make better decisions by helping them to "see" themselves as they really are by carefully examining that is inside the "black box of the human brain." Only by doing so can we "honestly assess our flaws and talents, our strengths and shortcomings. For the first time [Lehrer claims], such a vision is possible. We finally have tools that can piece the mystery of the mind, revealing the intricate machinery that shapes our behavior. Now we need to put this knowledge."
I am unqualified to comment on Jonah Lehrer's claim that what he offers enables the aforementioned "vision" for the first time. However, he has certainly increased both my awareness and my understanding of what may be in my own "black box."
In the Introduction after sharing an experience aboard a simulated flight landing at Tokyo Narita International Airport, Lehrer observes: "In the end, the difference between landing my plane in one piece and my dying in a fiery crash came down to a single decision made in the panicked moments after the engine fire...This book is about how we make decisions. It's about airline pilots, NFL quarterbacks, television directors, poker players, professional investors, and serial killers...[Ever since the ancient Greeks, assumptions about decision making have revolved around a single theme: humans are ration.] There's only one problem with this assumption of human rationality: It's not how the brain works...We can look inside the brain and see how humans think: the black box has been broken open. It turns out we weren't designed to be rational creatures...Whenever someone makes a decision, the brain is awash in feeling, driven by its inexplicable passions. Even when a person tries to be reasonable and restrained, these emotional impulses secretly influence judgment...Knowing how the mind [i.e. `a powerful biological machine'] works is useful knowledge, since it shows us how to get the most out of the machine. But the brain doesn't exist in a vacuum; all decisions are made in the context of the real world."
Then in the Coda, Lehrer re-visits the approach into the Tokyo airport that, we now realize, serves as the central metaphor in his book. "When the onboard computers and pilots properly interact, it's an ideal model for decision-making. The rational brain (the pilot) and the emotional brain (the cockpit computers) exist in perfect equilibrium, each system focusing on those areas in which it has a comparative advantage. The reason planes are so safe, areas in which it has a competitive advantage. The reason planes are so safe, even though both the pilot and the autopilot are fallible, is that both systems are constantly working to correct each other. Mistakes are fixed before they spiral out of control." The safe landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on January 15th offers a more recent example of what Lehrer calls "perfect equilibrium" between Captain Chesley ("Sully") Sullenberger and the computers aboard the Airbus A320.
There are many valuable insights within Lehrer's narrative. Here are several that caught my eye, albeit quoted out of context.
"The process of thinking requires feeling, for feelings are what let us understand all the information that we can't directly comprehend. Reason without emotion is impotent." (Page 26)
"Unless you experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong, your brain will never revise its models. Before your neurons can succeed, they must repeatedly fail. There are no shortcuts for this painstaking process." (Page 54)
"The ability to supervise itself, to exercise authority over its own decision-making process, is one of the most mysterious talents of the human brain. Such a mental maneuver is known as executive control, since thoughts are directed from the tip down, like a CEO issuing orders." (Page 116)
"As it happens, some of our most important decisions are about how to treat other people. The human being is a social animal, endowed with a brain that shapes social behavior. By understanding how the brain makes these decisions, we can gain insight into one of the most unique aspects of human nature: morality." (Page 166) Lehrer devotes all of Chapter 6, The Mortal Mind, to this important "aspect." For
example:
"At its core, moral decision-making is about sympathy. We abhor violence because we know violence hurts. We treat others fairly because we know what it feels like to be treated unfairly. We reject suffering because we can imagine what it's like to suffer. Our minds naturally bind us together, so we can't help but follow the advice of Luke: `And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Page 180)
Actually, I highlighted dozens of other passages but this review is already longer than I originally intended so I will quote no others. Because I think so highly of this book, I wanted to allow Lehrer sufficient opportunity to share at least a few of his thoughts with those who read this review. Credit him with a brilliant achievement: Enabling his readers to make better decisions by helping them to "see" themselves as they really are by carefully examining that is inside the "black box of the human brain." Only by doing so can we "honestly assess our flaws and talents, our strengths and shortcomings. For the first time [Lehrer claims], such a vision is possible. We finally have tools that can piece the mystery of the mind, revealing the intricate machinery that shapes our behavior. Now we need to put this knowledge."
I am unqualified to comment on Jonah Lehrer's claim that what he offers enables the aforementioned "vision" for the first time. However, he has certainly increased both my awareness and my understanding of what may be in my own "black box."
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 1, 2010
Haven't finished reading it yet(3/4) but the situation used as examples for how the work do that it does are very interesting to say the least.
You can really feel the complexity behind each tough or decisions and the explanations are really good and informative.
You can really feel the complexity behind each tough or decisions and the explanations are really good and informative.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 15, 2009
How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer, 2009
After being blown away by his previous book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, on the relationship between brain science and art, I snapped up Lehrer's next one. Its purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between brain science and the way we make decisions in our everyday world.
It points out early that the old dichotomy that we all know and our western tradition has believed for the past three millennia is in fact false. That tradition is that the brain is divided between reason and emotion and that from Plato on forward we have been told we have to pay attention to reason because emotion leads us of the rails and has to be cajoled and bullied back into place by reason.
Wrongo. The brain is a prediction machine and conscious and unconscious factors lead people to made decisions, sometimes favouring the speed and experience of intuition and on other occasions mulling over the facts.
In this context, Lehrer uses compelling real life situations to make his points. How Tom Brady passed into the 'future' to win the Superbowl; how the radar tech felt a returning jet blip was wrong and ordered it downed, less than a half mile from a battle ship he was not on - it was a missile; how the mind is averse to loss and that we invest money in the stock market for bad reasons; that superstar basketball players do not get on streaks of success; and so on.
Early on, Lehrer points out that a brain injury patient who has the connection between the subconscious and conscious centre (behind the right eyebrow) severed cannot make decisions because without emotional preferences consciousness has no way of determining which action to take. Then he gets into the dopamine system that makes us feel pleasure, but at the same time tells us when something is wrong (the blip being an enemy missile rather than one of us good guys in a fighter jet) by stimulating long slender spindle cells that go all over the brain so we get the jolt simultaneously. Interestingly enough these 'emotion' sensors are only found in higher primates, and humans have 40 times more than our closest monkey friends, pretty conclusive proof that our emotions are a highly flexible system for real time predictions with a mistake recognition loop for improving our expectations for the life we move into.
Intelligent intuition is the result of deliberate practice. That is the conclusion of one of the best chess, backgammon and poker players in the world, Bill Robertie. If you want to improve, review your mistakes. Lehrer even tells you how to stop spending so much on so many credit cards, based on brain science of the small 'insula' in the brain that recognizes negative feelings - it's far harder to hand across cash than plastic. Got suckered in the 'sub-prime' mortgage debacle? There's a brain region for that, too. And Herman Palmer, a New York debt counselor (part of the every day use of this book) says, '...read only the fine print," on credit card come-ons.
On mulling the facts, in a crisis, Chapter 4: The Uses of Reason has a stellar section in it about two pilots trying to save their DC-10 (no not because of the faulty baggage door that put the company out of business) from crashing, pages 120 - 132. This tells you how the brain works through a problem when terrified, and coming to a counterintuitive conclusion that has never existed before when 500 lives, most importantly your own, is at stake.
Chapter 5: Choking on Thought, is about how when we think over something we know well, that we inhibit our conscious attention and we choke. This is intended to further develop the intuition, subconscious part of decision making. For my tastes, this was a tad repetitive, and perhaps too many scientific studies to make the same point several times. But, interesting stories, nonetheless, for example, it has been conclusively shown that MRI examinations for lower back pain have resulted in more than 50% more 'invasive' incorrect outcomes from doctors because our conscious centre in the right prefrontal area can only handle, get this, seven different factors before its ability to make decisions goes down the tube and we make worse decisions. And you thought the brain worked like a computer. Wrong.
Chapter 6 is about how we make ethical discriminations. Kant, Descartes and lawyers won't be happy to know it doesn't take a lot of rational thought to make moral decisions. It turns out that we are hardwired to do so. We get the feeling, and then the rational mind makes up reasons to explain the feeling. This is because mammals need the warm feeling of mothers and others from the first moment to turn out okay. Our minds innately sympathize with others, empathize, then make altruistic decisions based on, actually, not wanting to see others suffer. We have active emotional reactions from our amygdyla, mirror cells that key in on others expressions so we experience the feeling, then our fusiform area recognizes particular people, and unlike psychopaths who do not feel, an amygdyla problem, or autists who cannot recognize the facial features that mean certain emotions and we want innately are wired to theorize that others are like us. These areas make us imbue others with emotion. It's not about rational thought at all; that comes later in the justification stage. Interestingly, if we are deprived of others our abilities to empathize and take actions to help others go way down, so think about various types of child abuse that change people when they most need those various centres to be turned on, nurtured and grown. Fascinating chapter. Oh, and all you parents who have been deprived of your child or lost a child feel intense pain because of simple hormones that also regulate water level in the body - vasopressin and oxytocin. Such a loss wipes most people out for the rest of their lives.
The collected wisdom of How We Decide comes on pages 244 - 250, but the book is much more fascinating than the summary. And The Coda puts neatly the mesh between the experience (emotion) and reasoning (conscious thought) components of our thoughts. Both have their specialties and both are required all day long every day.
Lehrer takes my vote as the science writer who has best thought through the science - their papers often written with tentative conclusions, in gibberish text and with the need to pass peer judgment, demonstrate repeatable experiments and with an overladen Latin weight - and translated it into incisive, sparkling, accessible, understandable and compelling reading for the human being who is interested in investigating how things work in their heads. And it passes the short attention spam test: the book ends in less than 250 pages. As previously mentioned, I am working on a book: The Brains of Poets (dcreid.ca), and would always like more science and more art. This book will appeal to a broader audience.
After being blown away by his previous book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, on the relationship between brain science and art, I snapped up Lehrer's next one. Its purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between brain science and the way we make decisions in our everyday world.
It points out early that the old dichotomy that we all know and our western tradition has believed for the past three millennia is in fact false. That tradition is that the brain is divided between reason and emotion and that from Plato on forward we have been told we have to pay attention to reason because emotion leads us of the rails and has to be cajoled and bullied back into place by reason.
Wrongo. The brain is a prediction machine and conscious and unconscious factors lead people to made decisions, sometimes favouring the speed and experience of intuition and on other occasions mulling over the facts.
In this context, Lehrer uses compelling real life situations to make his points. How Tom Brady passed into the 'future' to win the Superbowl; how the radar tech felt a returning jet blip was wrong and ordered it downed, less than a half mile from a battle ship he was not on - it was a missile; how the mind is averse to loss and that we invest money in the stock market for bad reasons; that superstar basketball players do not get on streaks of success; and so on.
Early on, Lehrer points out that a brain injury patient who has the connection between the subconscious and conscious centre (behind the right eyebrow) severed cannot make decisions because without emotional preferences consciousness has no way of determining which action to take. Then he gets into the dopamine system that makes us feel pleasure, but at the same time tells us when something is wrong (the blip being an enemy missile rather than one of us good guys in a fighter jet) by stimulating long slender spindle cells that go all over the brain so we get the jolt simultaneously. Interestingly enough these 'emotion' sensors are only found in higher primates, and humans have 40 times more than our closest monkey friends, pretty conclusive proof that our emotions are a highly flexible system for real time predictions with a mistake recognition loop for improving our expectations for the life we move into.
Intelligent intuition is the result of deliberate practice. That is the conclusion of one of the best chess, backgammon and poker players in the world, Bill Robertie. If you want to improve, review your mistakes. Lehrer even tells you how to stop spending so much on so many credit cards, based on brain science of the small 'insula' in the brain that recognizes negative feelings - it's far harder to hand across cash than plastic. Got suckered in the 'sub-prime' mortgage debacle? There's a brain region for that, too. And Herman Palmer, a New York debt counselor (part of the every day use of this book) says, '...read only the fine print," on credit card come-ons.
On mulling the facts, in a crisis, Chapter 4: The Uses of Reason has a stellar section in it about two pilots trying to save their DC-10 (no not because of the faulty baggage door that put the company out of business) from crashing, pages 120 - 132. This tells you how the brain works through a problem when terrified, and coming to a counterintuitive conclusion that has never existed before when 500 lives, most importantly your own, is at stake.
Chapter 5: Choking on Thought, is about how when we think over something we know well, that we inhibit our conscious attention and we choke. This is intended to further develop the intuition, subconscious part of decision making. For my tastes, this was a tad repetitive, and perhaps too many scientific studies to make the same point several times. But, interesting stories, nonetheless, for example, it has been conclusively shown that MRI examinations for lower back pain have resulted in more than 50% more 'invasive' incorrect outcomes from doctors because our conscious centre in the right prefrontal area can only handle, get this, seven different factors before its ability to make decisions goes down the tube and we make worse decisions. And you thought the brain worked like a computer. Wrong.
Chapter 6 is about how we make ethical discriminations. Kant, Descartes and lawyers won't be happy to know it doesn't take a lot of rational thought to make moral decisions. It turns out that we are hardwired to do so. We get the feeling, and then the rational mind makes up reasons to explain the feeling. This is because mammals need the warm feeling of mothers and others from the first moment to turn out okay. Our minds innately sympathize with others, empathize, then make altruistic decisions based on, actually, not wanting to see others suffer. We have active emotional reactions from our amygdyla, mirror cells that key in on others expressions so we experience the feeling, then our fusiform area recognizes particular people, and unlike psychopaths who do not feel, an amygdyla problem, or autists who cannot recognize the facial features that mean certain emotions and we want innately are wired to theorize that others are like us. These areas make us imbue others with emotion. It's not about rational thought at all; that comes later in the justification stage. Interestingly, if we are deprived of others our abilities to empathize and take actions to help others go way down, so think about various types of child abuse that change people when they most need those various centres to be turned on, nurtured and grown. Fascinating chapter. Oh, and all you parents who have been deprived of your child or lost a child feel intense pain because of simple hormones that also regulate water level in the body - vasopressin and oxytocin. Such a loss wipes most people out for the rest of their lives.
The collected wisdom of How We Decide comes on pages 244 - 250, but the book is much more fascinating than the summary. And The Coda puts neatly the mesh between the experience (emotion) and reasoning (conscious thought) components of our thoughts. Both have their specialties and both are required all day long every day.
Lehrer takes my vote as the science writer who has best thought through the science - their papers often written with tentative conclusions, in gibberish text and with the need to pass peer judgment, demonstrate repeatable experiments and with an overladen Latin weight - and translated it into incisive, sparkling, accessible, understandable and compelling reading for the human being who is interested in investigating how things work in their heads. And it passes the short attention spam test: the book ends in less than 250 pages. As previously mentioned, I am working on a book: The Brains of Poets (dcreid.ca), and would always like more science and more art. This book will appeal to a broader audience.
Top reviews from other countries
Philipda
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good description with lengthy intro
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on March 30, 2013Verified Purchase
This book gives many example about how our brain architectures lead us to decide optimal solutions or sometimes a catastrophe. Also, there are many useful tricks, or guides given for deciding things that we mostly fail to do it well, such as, dealing with loss aversion on betting and selecting a favourite jam from a department store. However, in my opinion, the introduction in each chapter of the book describing its example is a bit too long. Therefore, if you are looking for a book with short and rigid knowledge, this would not be recommended for you. But if you want to take a novel styled introduction to neuroscience, cognitive science, or behavioral science, I think you will enjoy reading this book.
宗宏
5.0 out of 5 stars
脳科学で優しくなれる
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on March 16, 2013Verified Purchase
人間の意思決定を必要とする色々な状況に対して、様々な過程が脳の中であり、そしてそれが結論だともっともらしく答えををもたらすことを、興味深い事例を挙げながら次々と話は展開する。
時に自らの過去の意思決定を思い返し苦笑してみたり、今の自分の脳を巡る意識を不思議な感覚で考えさせてくれる。
少々認知症特有の感情の発露をする高齢の母親に対して、脳のあの部分がこうなって、それで斯様に反応しているのかと、今までなら真正面から受けて自らも反応していたことが、客観的に受け止められるようになった。 仕事を含む社会生活の様々な場面で、一呼吸置く余裕や優しささえ齎してくれる、脳科学の大変面白い本である。
時に自らの過去の意思決定を思い返し苦笑してみたり、今の自分の脳を巡る意識を不思議な感覚で考えさせてくれる。
少々認知症特有の感情の発露をする高齢の母親に対して、脳のあの部分がこうなって、それで斯様に反応しているのかと、今までなら真正面から受けて自らも反応していたことが、客観的に受け止められるようになった。 仕事を含む社会生活の様々な場面で、一呼吸置く余裕や優しささえ齎してくれる、脳科学の大変面白い本である。
Kindleユーザー
5.0 out of 5 stars
脳内の仕組みが面白い！
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on July 16, 2012Verified Purchase
まだ、読み始めたばかりですが、はまってしまいました。判断力がある状態はどうやってできるかのヒントになりそうです。
Kushi-book-reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
THINK ABOUT THINKING
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on April 19, 2009Verified Purchase
脳がどのようにして意思決定を行うかが、脳科学的にわかりやすいように解説されています。
既に他の方がレビューされていますが、”blink”をおもしろいと感じた方は、直感についてさらに深い洞察を得ることができると思います。
著者が若い男性ということもあってか、事例にバスケットボールやアメリカンフットボールといったスポーツ、ミリタリー、消防のことなんかが挙げられていて、若い男性にとっては読みやすい内容です。
既に他の方がレビューされていますが、”blink”をおもしろいと感じた方は、直感についてさらに深い洞察を得ることができると思います。
著者が若い男性ということもあってか、事例にバスケットボールやアメリカンフットボールといったスポーツ、ミリタリー、消防のことなんかが挙げられていて、若い男性にとっては読みやすい内容です。
Larry R Frank Sr, MBA, CFP
5.0 out of 5 stars
How our brain works - in well told short stories fashion ...
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 7, 2010Verified Purchase
As a retired Air Force pilot (supersonic jets, multi-engine jets flying internationally, and helicopters) Lehrer's example in his introduction hit home; and how training and repetition help us make better decisions and hone instincts (instincts being the topic of an example in Chapter one too). Lehrer concludes with flight examples as well in the Coda. I bought the book primarily to understand how people make investment and economic decisions. I came away with much more.
A wealth of experiments that illustrate Lehrer's points, and short stories to bring your experience alive. I would point out, that his work is a primer to expose the reader to the broad aspects of how our minds work. All in all, a work that begins ones journey into how we decide. Lehrer has included excellent Notes and Bibliography sections for further reference and there is a well developed Index for cross referencing topics. All excellent resources to dive deeper into how we decide.
An NFL Football Quarterback governed primarily by emotions? Yes it is true according to research into an area of the brain (orbitofrontal cortex) that, when damaged, inhibits the feeling of emotions resulting in indecision. The first chapter describes how our "anatomical narrative" about our brain is false, and that emotions play a pivotal role in how we, as humans, make split second decisions. "Homos sapiens is the most emotional animal of all." It would seem that calculating many multi-variables, each in nanoseconds, would be more rational than emotional. Lehrer explains why rational and emotional are inter-related and necessary to each other and how rational evaluation would take too long.
Chapter 2 continues with the emotions theme through discussion of the single molecule dopamine. Lehrer discusses how various centers of the brain anticipate reward, learn from mistakes through pattern recognition and relearn through repetition and practice. Of interest is the discussion on the observation that praise for effort, although with mistakes, provides people with more incentive than praise for being correct or more perfect. Summary, we learn more from our mistakes.
Emotions are not perfect though, the topic of Chapter 3. The flaw? The mistakes we make when there is no pattern! Slot machines, prediction addiction trying to decipher patterns from true randomness or unpredictable rewards (3 or 4 times more exciting), and the game show Deal or No Deal are discussed. The discussion of how we approach the stock market is enlightening and how the flaw for dealing with randomness in our brains may lead to market bubbles and busts. Fictive-error learning, feeling of regret, loss aversion, negativity bias, all are examples and result of "slavishly following your primitive reward circuits." Credit cards and sub prime loans and buy-now are impulsive emotions wanting reward now overcoming reason. "The emotional brain is routinely duped."
As to overcoming the investment foibles in Chapter 3, there are investment books available that help you structure your approach to the random markets that go into more detail in what Lehrer suggests.
The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William J. Bernstein
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William J. Bernstein
What Wall Street Doesn't Want You to Know: How You Can Build Real Wealth Investing in Index Funds by Larry E. Swedroe
The Successful Investor Today: 14 Simple Truths You Must Know When You Invest by Larry E. Swedroe
Chapters 4 and 5 switch gears from the emotional brain to the rational brain. Lehrer tells the story of the firefighter who invented the standard technique for firefighters to survive a fire that's about to overrun them. Rather than succumb to "perceptual narrowing," the brain expanded the list of possibilities. It is such that a new break through or discovery is made - rational thought. He goes on to tell of how the inability for rational thought leads to not being able to think ahead, plan, or repress impulses. Here framing a choice becomes important - is it framed positively, or negatively (recall loss aversion), to evoke a choice? "People who are more rational don't perceive emotion less, they just regulate it better." For those parents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) children, his discussion on brain development may bring good news. Brain development of adolescents and their behavior are also covered. Working memory and how it works to form useful associations for new problems while the rational brain filters out unneeded thoughts is presented through example of the crash of Flight 232.
Chapter 5 looks at when our brain over analyzes. Sports, performers, students taking tests, sometimes "choke." Why? Thinking too much. Also, stereotype threats, and blind taste tests all cut you "off from the wisdom of your emotions." The "weighting mistake" people make between choosing a home in the suburbs and longer commute, over an urban choice with a shorter commute. The placebo effect is also explored in light of your expectations. Trying to remember too much and how that may lead to poor choices. Where bad moods may come from. Mental accounting. Anchoring effect. How too much information may lead to inability to ignore irrelevant data or poverty of attention ... and the effect this has on the medical profession. The prefrontal cortex is laden with flaws and foibles and is easy to hoodwink.
Chapter 6 explores the realm of how we treat other people, or the requirement to consider other people ... morality. What makes someone a psychopath? How our modern legal system is antiquated in the assumptions it is based on. How our view of morality has been backwards. How an egocentric decision making strategy backfires with moral decisions. Altruism and how it makes some feel good. In addition, when the brain is broken: Autism; Child abuse; Broken homes; and Solitary living while young. All are discussed along with interesting experiments that show the effect of normal versus broken brain development.
Chapter 7 discusses how we decide and arrive at our beliefs. How retailers manipulate our brains by priming one area of the brain with positive stimulus, while soothing another area of the brain in order for us to "go broke convinced that we are saving money." Credit cards, as plastic, inhibits the insula by dulling the averse feeling of having spent real money. Self-delusion. Lehrer discusses politics as well as to how our brain turns into an information filter to block out points we don't agree with. How certainty in our thinking can lead us astray. How censoring our minds leads us to ignore relevant information. "When making decisions, actively resist the urge to suppress the argument.
The final chapter uses the game of poker to demonstrate the simultaneous use of both the rational and emotional parts of the brain. This then goes to turn yet another widely held belief on its head, that the harder decisions are the ones that require the most feeling, not the easy decisions, as many would initially think. In situations with incomplete information, such as the financial markets, we need to think and feel. Lehrer concludes the chapter with some general guidelines: Simple problems require reason. Novel problems also require reason. Embrace uncertainty. You know more than you know. Think about thinking.
Other books worth the read relating to how the brain and mind works:
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich By Jason Zweig which illustrates where many of these brain areas are.
A philosophy, that may help avoid many issues Lehrer raises in Chapter 3, is to adapt an overall wealth approach to your finances rather than shooting to make more money now. How? A resource may be: Wealth Odyssey: The Essential Road Map For Your Financial Journey Where Is It You Are Really Trying To Go With Money?
A wealth of experiments that illustrate Lehrer's points, and short stories to bring your experience alive. I would point out, that his work is a primer to expose the reader to the broad aspects of how our minds work. All in all, a work that begins ones journey into how we decide. Lehrer has included excellent Notes and Bibliography sections for further reference and there is a well developed Index for cross referencing topics. All excellent resources to dive deeper into how we decide.
An NFL Football Quarterback governed primarily by emotions? Yes it is true according to research into an area of the brain (orbitofrontal cortex) that, when damaged, inhibits the feeling of emotions resulting in indecision. The first chapter describes how our "anatomical narrative" about our brain is false, and that emotions play a pivotal role in how we, as humans, make split second decisions. "Homos sapiens is the most emotional animal of all." It would seem that calculating many multi-variables, each in nanoseconds, would be more rational than emotional. Lehrer explains why rational and emotional are inter-related and necessary to each other and how rational evaluation would take too long.
Chapter 2 continues with the emotions theme through discussion of the single molecule dopamine. Lehrer discusses how various centers of the brain anticipate reward, learn from mistakes through pattern recognition and relearn through repetition and practice. Of interest is the discussion on the observation that praise for effort, although with mistakes, provides people with more incentive than praise for being correct or more perfect. Summary, we learn more from our mistakes.
Emotions are not perfect though, the topic of Chapter 3. The flaw? The mistakes we make when there is no pattern! Slot machines, prediction addiction trying to decipher patterns from true randomness or unpredictable rewards (3 or 4 times more exciting), and the game show Deal or No Deal are discussed. The discussion of how we approach the stock market is enlightening and how the flaw for dealing with randomness in our brains may lead to market bubbles and busts. Fictive-error learning, feeling of regret, loss aversion, negativity bias, all are examples and result of "slavishly following your primitive reward circuits." Credit cards and sub prime loans and buy-now are impulsive emotions wanting reward now overcoming reason. "The emotional brain is routinely duped."
As to overcoming the investment foibles in Chapter 3, there are investment books available that help you structure your approach to the random markets that go into more detail in what Lehrer suggests.
The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William J. Bernstein
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William J. Bernstein
What Wall Street Doesn't Want You to Know: How You Can Build Real Wealth Investing in Index Funds by Larry E. Swedroe
The Successful Investor Today: 14 Simple Truths You Must Know When You Invest by Larry E. Swedroe
Chapters 4 and 5 switch gears from the emotional brain to the rational brain. Lehrer tells the story of the firefighter who invented the standard technique for firefighters to survive a fire that's about to overrun them. Rather than succumb to "perceptual narrowing," the brain expanded the list of possibilities. It is such that a new break through or discovery is made - rational thought. He goes on to tell of how the inability for rational thought leads to not being able to think ahead, plan, or repress impulses. Here framing a choice becomes important - is it framed positively, or negatively (recall loss aversion), to evoke a choice? "People who are more rational don't perceive emotion less, they just regulate it better." For those parents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) children, his discussion on brain development may bring good news. Brain development of adolescents and their behavior are also covered. Working memory and how it works to form useful associations for new problems while the rational brain filters out unneeded thoughts is presented through example of the crash of Flight 232.
Chapter 5 looks at when our brain over analyzes. Sports, performers, students taking tests, sometimes "choke." Why? Thinking too much. Also, stereotype threats, and blind taste tests all cut you "off from the wisdom of your emotions." The "weighting mistake" people make between choosing a home in the suburbs and longer commute, over an urban choice with a shorter commute. The placebo effect is also explored in light of your expectations. Trying to remember too much and how that may lead to poor choices. Where bad moods may come from. Mental accounting. Anchoring effect. How too much information may lead to inability to ignore irrelevant data or poverty of attention ... and the effect this has on the medical profession. The prefrontal cortex is laden with flaws and foibles and is easy to hoodwink.
Chapter 6 explores the realm of how we treat other people, or the requirement to consider other people ... morality. What makes someone a psychopath? How our modern legal system is antiquated in the assumptions it is based on. How our view of morality has been backwards. How an egocentric decision making strategy backfires with moral decisions. Altruism and how it makes some feel good. In addition, when the brain is broken: Autism; Child abuse; Broken homes; and Solitary living while young. All are discussed along with interesting experiments that show the effect of normal versus broken brain development.
Chapter 7 discusses how we decide and arrive at our beliefs. How retailers manipulate our brains by priming one area of the brain with positive stimulus, while soothing another area of the brain in order for us to "go broke convinced that we are saving money." Credit cards, as plastic, inhibits the insula by dulling the averse feeling of having spent real money. Self-delusion. Lehrer discusses politics as well as to how our brain turns into an information filter to block out points we don't agree with. How certainty in our thinking can lead us astray. How censoring our minds leads us to ignore relevant information. "When making decisions, actively resist the urge to suppress the argument.
The final chapter uses the game of poker to demonstrate the simultaneous use of both the rational and emotional parts of the brain. This then goes to turn yet another widely held belief on its head, that the harder decisions are the ones that require the most feeling, not the easy decisions, as many would initially think. In situations with incomplete information, such as the financial markets, we need to think and feel. Lehrer concludes the chapter with some general guidelines: Simple problems require reason. Novel problems also require reason. Embrace uncertainty. You know more than you know. Think about thinking.
Other books worth the read relating to how the brain and mind works:
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich By Jason Zweig which illustrates where many of these brain areas are.
A philosophy, that may help avoid many issues Lehrer raises in Chapter 3, is to adapt an overall wealth approach to your finances rather than shooting to make more money now. How? A resource may be: Wealth Odyssey: The Essential Road Map For Your Financial Journey Where Is It You Are Really Trying To Go With Money?
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