Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making by Reid HastieMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
What kind of book is this?
This is an expository work; more specifically, it is a theoretical textbook.
Rational & Why I read this book
2021 is my year of ratio & will. I try to read various books with various angles on rationality. A highly scientific standpoint should of course also be part of that.
The unity of the book — what is the book about as a whole?
This is a book about rational decision-making based on what we know about it from science (I read the 2001 version).
The book's structure
The book has 14 main chapters with 4-7 subchapters each (350 pages).
1. Thinking and Deciding
2. What Is Decision Making?
3. A General Framework for Judgment
4. Judgments From Memory
5. Anchoring and Adjustment
6. Judgment by Similarity
7. Judging by Scenarios and Explanations
8. Thinking About Randomness and Causation
9. Thinking Rationally About Uncertainty
11. Evaluating Consequences: Simple Values
12. Complex Values and Attitudes
13. A Normative, Rational Decision Theory
14. In Praise of Uncertainty
X. Appendix on the basic principles of probability theory.
One particular lesson
A passage I found relevant for my personal life:
"Children who see little contingency between their own behavior and their rewards and punishments often behave badly, or at least we can improve their behavior by increasing the contingency. In addition, employees who believe that they have control over the rewards they receive for their work are motivated to work hard and be productive. Consequently, employers and supervisors are well advised to establish a contingency between employee accomplishments and rewards. ... Rationally, it often doesn't matter how much control we have over outcomes-so long as we have some" (p. 324)
Judgement & Recommendations - Who should read this?
This is a textbook intended for students, albeit a somewhat approachable one. It took me several weeks to finish and I even skipped one chapter which I didn't find relevant for me. Therefore, I would not recommend this as a whole to the average reader. If you are researching a certain topic or if you have a deep interest in one of the covered topics, you maybe can use it as a reference work (read-only part of the book and fetch the mentioned resources). Otherwise, I'd recommend you choose other books like Tools Of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts For Psychology and The Art of Clear Thinking (if you are interested in improving your thinking in practice) instead. They are of a more practical nature. Overall, I appoint it a 6 out of 10 (⭑⭑⭑) on my personal rating scale.
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