How We Decide

Jonah Lehrer does an excellent job of weaving biological neuroscience with the areas of the brain that control various mental processes. He gets a bit deep in the medical terminology but does a good job of describing research experiments that serve to probe various brain areas and the processes they govern. I really enjoyed reading the psychological experiments that he references and his summation of how they affect our daily lives as well as how we react to others around us. The case study on LTC Riley's decision to launch Sea Dart missiles at ambiguous radar blips in a time critical Gulf War situation was very informative as to how the human mind can synthesize the the available information and make the correct decision more times than not. Other studies dealt with single elements of decision making such as how paying with credit cards provides the immediate gratification response in the brain with minimal negative feelings that would be experienced with paying in cash and how dopamine regulates these emotions. Hence we tend to overspend when using credit cards because that is the way the brain is wired. Other studies explain how we can over-analyze the "problem" and as a result end up with bad outcomes. In one study supporting this theory he introduces us to how lower back pain treatment has been much more aggressively treated since the introduction of the MRI which gives physicians access to far more data on the spine and inter-vertebral discs than ever before. The study explains how the physicians are able to pinpoint the source of the pain and treat it using surgery and other invasive therapies whereas prior to having this advanced information the patients were usually prescribed bed rest. Ironically, the two treatment options produced the same results in that the patients usually got batter in about 7 weeks. It was shown that the MRI surgeons were able to see anomalies in the discs and associated them with the back pain instead of realizing that they were normal aging phenomenon that required no intervention. The place where the book didn't work well for me was toward the end where Lehrer summarizes the importance of the rational mind competing effectively with the emotional mind to obtain the best decisions. I understand his premise and how he reaches it but I am confused as to which should be allowed to dominate in the final decision and when. In summary, it is a fascinating read that will have you cutting up your credit cards, not playing slot machines and looking at the world around you through a new lens of understanding but maybe just a little confused as to which strategy works best in a particular decision making process.

Lehrer's understanding of the human mind is evident in his writing: he begins this book with a story and peppers it with stories throughout. The stories he tells (about plane crashes, football wins, and opera singers who choke) are full of suspense and unexpected twists that make any book worth reading. Lehrer's scientific chops are evident as well, and he does not rely on simple anecdotal evidence to support his claims, but cites excellent and repeated research as well as some classic behavioral experiments to make his points.

This would be a very good book to give an intelligent man as a gift, many of the examples Lehrer cites are from sports, other stories are about gambling, world champion poker players, flight and combat. As a woman, I found these discussions to be very interesting, because frankly, I never got why men are so interested in some of those things. Turns out that a lot of intuitive stuff goes on here.

Lehrer suggests that our rational brain is not quite as adept as our emotional brain, but each has times when it will function better than the other, and points out when these times are. He notes that the more extensive experience a person has in some area, the more they can rely on intuitive judgement. Conversely, if a person has little experience, intuition is not going to help, but in fact, hurt you. For example, there is no way to become expert at the slots, but people feel like they can make sense out of them, and the dopamine surge that a win provides keeps them trying to figure out a pattern that doesn't exist. Intuition per se is not quite what he means, but you'd have to read the book to understand it.

I found Lehrer's very clear-cut description of when to use what kind of brain process to be very interesting and useful.

Worth buying and worth owning, this non-fiction work will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Performed by David Kowalchuk, who read with just the right amount of intelligence and intensity. An excellent audiobook.

I review only audiobooks. Check out my other reviews, then download, plug in, and never be bored again.

This a well written. Got me to thinking alot. It reads like a text book at times but overall a very interesting read

This was an excellent book. I will start by mentioning it's prose is simply well-written. It's clear, it's precise, it's interesting, yet it's not boring or dry or quirky in some annoying way. It's just very good writing. Next is the very broad coverage of this book. The author really did a great job of finding tons of interesting facts and recent scientific findings. The book was quite interesting and relevant for me beyond merely the topic of decision making. He also touches on forecasting and memory and cognition in general. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was something that probably would be the part that appeals most to others and that's his sports anecdotes. After the first couple of pages, I thought, Oh no, this guy's a football fan and I find that boring. Well, he talked about golf and poker too which I find even more boring. But it turns out that it was all to good effect. He made his points quite well with those kinds of stories. The whole book certainly wasn't about golf or anything and I got over it because what really stood out was the fascinating topics presented in a well-organized interesting way. One weird thing was the use of sub chapters. This lead to some navigation uncertainty, for example, when I saw a big number 3 on page 49 and then a slightly bigger big number 3 on page 57. Didn't I just read chapter 3? Ah, that was chapter 2's chapter 3. See what I mean? But it was fine. If you want to get a better understanding of how the human mind does what it does, this book is a way to get a lot of information about that in a way that is not overwhelmingly technical.

I was so pleased with the quick service and condition of the book. As always, I can count on Amazon dealers to be reliable and courteous. Very refreshing. Thanks so much.