An engaging, paradigm-shifting look at the science of decision-making.
McQueen presents a series of strategies for shifting positions and adopting new ways of thinking in this nonfiction guide.
“Our perceptions of value may be unconscious,” writes the author, a corporate conference circuit veteran, “but they are extraordinarily powerful.” Once we have an established notion of something, he observes, we tend to color subsequent impressions with that idea, and changing this perspective can be seemingly impossible. McQueen has spent two decades researching trends and technology, and he’s consistently returned to the same question: What stops people from changing, even when they know they should? In these pages, he examines the many ways in which people develop preferences and make decisions. In his view, these processes are governed by the “Instinctive Mind,” which is intuitive and emotional, and the “Inquiring Mind,” which is logical and evaluative. The Instinctive Mind, he writes, is fond of labels and can be untrustworthy, but he stresses that it’s nevertheless sometimes better at making decisions. The key to clear decision-making, the author asserts, is to strike an effective balance between these two minds, and the best strategy for changing fixed positions—your own or somebody else’s—is to figure out which of these is ascendant, and how it can be influenced. McQueen references a satisfying variety of sources to buttress his points, although, like many of those sources, he often lapses into vague, motivational bumper-sticker platitudes, exemplified by this quote from self-help icon Wayne Dyer: “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” The author’s saving grace is his forthright tone; he’s always a clear-eyed, bracing guide to changing old thinking habits. His sharp insights are compelling: “It’s important to clarify that delusion is not a function of ignorance—the undiscerning are not necessarily unintelligent.” Even set-in-their-ways readers will find much of this material invigorating.
An engaging, paradigm-shifting look at the science of decision-making.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781637557396
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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IN THE NEWS
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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