A review by robynryle
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

3.0

This was an intersting book in trying to use emerging neuroscience to explain how we make decisions. Sometimes I feel that a lot of the "startling" conclusions that neuroscientists come to were fairly obvious to those of us in the social sciences. We don't make decisions rationally. Are decisions are usually actually based on emotions and then post-hoc, we come up with a rational explanation for our decision. No kidding. Still, interesting to see the "real" scientists back up some of the conclusions of those of us who deal with humans, rather than brains. Nice mix of philosophy, too, but very little consideration of the importance of social factors in thinking about how people think.