215 of 219 people found the following review helpful:
Still the best popular book on this topic
This is a wonderful achievement of science popularisation. Sutherland had a gift for succinctly and non-technically summarising psychology experiments. In this book he surveys more than one hundred and sixty different studies that expose failings of human reasoning and judgement. Overconfidence, conformity, biased assessment of evidence and inconsistency are among the...
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Good read.
A very good book examining the irrational decisions people make. It also provides methods on how best to make a rational decision and not fall into the common traps. Learning statistics and probability theory are a start.
I did find it a little boring to read at times. The writing style is a little bland and technical in nature. Also, one thing the book only...
This is a wonderful achievement of science popularisation. Sutherland had a gift for succinctly and non-technically summarising psychology experiments. In this book he surveys more than one hundred and sixty different studies that expose failings of human reasoning and judgement. Overconfidence, conformity, biased assessment of evidence and inconsistency are among the follies given their own chapters. One chapter deals with organizational (bureaucratic) irrationality.
The point is not the banal one that there are stupid people about. It is that we all make systematic errors and biases that can lead to disaster in predictable ways. The example applications include reasoning about medical tests, military disasters, the paranormal, the Rorschach test, gambling and daft purchasing decisions.
If society took the recommendations in this book, we would give up job interviews, stop awarding school prizes, totally reform the procedures for criminal trials and change many of the incentive structures we use to motivate people. Each chapter ends with a set of personal lessons for minimising the damage of one's inevitable human irrationality.
This is a potentially very depressing book, but its humiliating lesson is one that, for a better public life and personal life, we need to learn. You can either learn it from a huge corpus of technical psychology literature or from this little paperback.
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`Irrationality - the Enemy Within' is essential reading for anyone who is interested in developing their thinking skills by becoming more aware of the numerous traps into which we can all so easily fall. The book presents many conundrums about which readers are invited to reach decisions, and time and again, in my own case at least, the correct, rational solution is surprising and enlightening. The twenty-three chapters comprise topics such as `Ignoring the evidence', `Mistaken connections in medicine', `The paranormal'. Each chapter ends with a brief coda headed `Moral' which summarises, often with wit, the main points we need to learn.
This book is scholarly, educational, extremely well written and continually entertaining. I am sure it will be appreciated by anyone who has enjoyed Dick Taverne's `The March of Unreason' - and vice versa.
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On reading this book you are a presented with everyday problems and the simply irrational way we make decisions- from leaving the cinema to international travel. This non-technical tale provokes thinking in a way that does not confuse the reader, but keeps them enthralled throughout- always wanting to read the next section.
To give you an idea- here is one of the simple irrationalities presented to us- You've paid to go and see a film, but don't like it- do you leave early? Whilst most people would say no, this book tempts us to say yes and shows us that this the logical way to do things. Essentially do we waste our time and money (and stay in the cinema) or just our money? Surely we should cut our losses and leave, but irrationality shows that in fact we don't we stick around in a way that shows our poor decision making.
Overall, irrationality presents solid arguments in a way thats easy to understand. A fantastic book.
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We all act on impulse and make quick decisions every day. That may be irrational but if we had to think long and hard about every decision we made then our lives would never get anywhere.
Fortunately, most of our decisions have very limited consequences if they turn out to be wrong, but sometimes a bad decision can cost a lot of money, even human lives. Then it is best to be sure that the decision was the best possible based on all the facts. Even when buying a new home or a new car, one could well save oneself some grief and perhaps a lot of money if the deal was approached in a rational manner.
As this book points out, many lives and lots of money have been lost and many projects have failed because of bad decisions due to pride, prejudice, by misinterpreting facts in ones own favor, by fear of non-conformity and many other irrational reasons.
This book is an excellent tour through a lot of topics, all of which are aspects of irrational behavior. Through many (painfully :-/ ) clear examples the author illustrates the various types of irrational behavior and how they can lead to bad or wrong decisions. For example, the "availability error" where too much emphasis is put on whatever comes first to mind, or the "halo effect" where too much emphasis is put on first impressions. These traps catch us every day and are among the advertisers' best weapons.
If you want to improve you own decision making - in you personal life as well as you professional life - or you just want to know why other people often make such bad decisions this book can give you a lot of insight into how easily people can make flawed decisions and thus what to be wary of the next time you face an important decision.
English is not my first language but I use English a lot. With this background I found the book fairly easy to read, although it is my impression that you do need to be quite proficient in the English language to get the full benefit of the book.
For those seeking more information about the topics and examples presented by the author, the book has a comprehensive list of the background material, with reference to the page where it is used, as well as a list of supplemental literature for the curious reader.
I warmly recommend this book to any Vulcan wannabe as well as to any person with the responsibility to make decisions that can affect other people's lives, jobs, careers, health etc.
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This book was first published in 1992, but don't let that put you off - the topics are more relevant today than ever before, particularly given the way we appear to be sliding head-first into another age of unreason. One example would be the chapter on stereotypes: very appropriate in this post 9/11 world, showing the development of prejudice towards out-groups and detailing 9 reasons why they occur (and shouldn't). If only people would read this instead of the latest anti-minority rant in their daily newspaper, we'd have a far more enlightened and tolerant public.
There are stacks of case studies in the book - well over a hundred, described in great detail (sometimes so much detail that you need to re-read the rules of the experiment to remember them) and you will soon get used to reading the phrase "In one experiment..." along with references to subjects and stooges.
This is a comprehensive eye-opening read but also a somewhat infuriating one, though not through any fault of the author. Quite simply, you start to wonder why on earth more children aren't taught basic statistical concepts and probability at school, as it is ignorance of these areas that plays such a large part in human irrational thinking, in people from ALL walks of life.
Other common causes of ignorance and mistakes - the availability error, the primacy error, the halo effect, the anchoring effect, and plenty more are all discussed at great length.
If you see a correlation between A and B and conclude that A must have 'caused' B, if you're prone to seeing strange coincidences and suspect that last night's dream managed to predict an event from today, if you think it's unlikely that in a room of 23 strangers, the probability of at least two of them having a birthday on the same day of the year is over a half... then this book is for you. In fact, it's for all of us, because no matter how rational you think you are, I guarantee you will be surprised at some of the errors you unwittingly make!
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Irrationality pulls in information from a vast array of experiments and psychological studies, presenting them in an interesting and easy to understand way. Bullet-point summaries at the end of each chapter provide a useful and sometimes amusing recap of detailed explorations of human fallibility. Sutherland establishes some of the most common causes of irrational behaviour in the first few chapters, allowing them to be referred to throughout.
Towards the latter half of the book he does occasionally drift into territory most would describe as "incorrect" rather than "irrational": I did feel at times that he had lost sight of his original remit, particularly when he was defending his classification of some human errors as irrational. However, for the most part he keeps a good pace and straight course through the subject matter.
Some of the evidence cited is a little thin (very small sample sizes, unpublished papers), but in a pop-science book which covers so much ground a bit of license can arguably be allowed.
Overall a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.
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The actuarial method has proved successful in predicting happiness in marriage, if you subtract the average number of times a couple makes love a week from the number of rows they have a week. This is just one of dozens of quirky insights from Stuart Sutherland, who will turn lots of your thinking on its head.
This is not a systematic book, it's just a stroll through some fascinating subjects, with the odd valuable lesson thrown in. Sutherland is not afraid to be prejudiced. He writes off psychoanalysis in a few paragraphs, he demolishes any pride you might have in your intuition, or any secret belief you may have in the paranormal.
I have a business, and I remember when I started applying for loans. The bank manager told me they did it all by computer now. I was horrified. Sutherland explains why they do it. It put me off applying for one - but actually, in retrospect, if they examined my credit record, it was immaculate. I just assumed a computer would be bureaucratic. Which might not be the case at all.
Also, I have had many very disappointing experiences in interviews. Sutherland describes exactly why interviews often don't result in the best candidate being selected.
I've often felt marginalised and disdained for not being a malleable member of committees and groups, so Sutherland's work is really comforting. I'd like to use some of his stories and examples in the speeches I write for CEOs, though I fear they may be just a bit too subversive.
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Full with psychological experiments that keep your interest high throughout the book, this book offers a new perspection to the way you evaluate people's actions and reactions.
This book is succesful at conveying the thoughts of the writer, you could argue it is quite scientific in the sense that sometimes offers a deep analysis of the ideas, but not to the point that becomes tiring or too specialized. On the contrary, i think it achieves the perfect balance between enjoyable reading and a non-epidermic approach.
It is by no chance related to BAD SCIENCE, in fact some experiments are mentioned in both the books, though these books are a complementary to each other and in no way just same books in different version.
It analyses a lot of everyday actions, and how these actions have nothing to do with logic (rationallity). Why people become stubborn, why some people when presented with contrary to their beliefs arquments instead of changing their views become even more convinced for their believes etc, this book explores a variety of topics, that I personally found all to be extremely interesting.
In one word, i would say it teaches you how to filter what goes on around you, and become more "objective" with your surroundings.
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In this classic work Stuart Sutherland explores the faults in our thinking. He quotes from many different psychology experiments and shows how and why we think irrationally. It is a serious work but very readable. He shows how doctors, generals, engineers and everyday people make basic systematic errors in their thinking. At times he adds his own quirky comments and advice. This book is valuable because it makes you think about how you think.
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A very good book examining the irrational decisions people make. It also provides methods on how best to make a rational decision and not fall into the common traps. Learning statistics and probability theory are a start.
I did find it a little boring to read at times. The writing style is a little bland and technical in nature. Also, one thing the book only touched on was why people are irrational. Is it because of the way the brain works, or is it because of our schooling, society norms or culture?
For me, people are not purely rational machines that make Mr. Spock-like decisions. The brain is a very different machine to that of a computer. The brain is an excellent pattern recognition device. It's so good that it's able to find patterns where none exist. People are also ruled by past experiences and learning, emotions, values, instinct and desires. Any decision a person makes is clouded by all these things. It's incredible we can function at all let alone make a rational decision.
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