This is the School of Bias library. Here you will find relevant books on behavioural science and related fields.
Kahneman draws on decades of research in cognitive psychology to explain how two systems of thinking shape human judgement: one fast and intuitive, the other slow and deliberate. The book surveys a wide range of cognitive biases and heuristics, showing how the automatic system produces predictable errors that affect decisions across everyday life.
Where bias describes a consistent directional error in judgement, noise describes the variability in decisions that should, in principle, be identical, and the authors argue that organisations systematically underestimate how much of it exists in consequential areas such as sentencing, hiring and medical diagnosis. The book draws a clear distinction between the two problems and proposes practical methods for reducing noise through structured decision processes.
A practical introduction to the field aimed at practitioners who want to apply findings from behavioural science to public policy and organisational problems, written by two researchers associated with the Behavioural Insights Team. It covers the theoretical foundations as well as the process of designing, testing and evaluating behaviourally informed interventions, with particular attention to the use of randomised controlled trials to establish what actually works.
Ariely uses a series of experiments to show that human irrationality follows systematic and foreseeable patterns rather than random error. The book covers the psychological effect of free offers, how arbitrary price anchors shape willingness to pay, and why people's stated preferences often diverge from their actual behaviour.
Lewis tells the story of the intellectual partnership between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who together developed prospect theory and the heuristics-and-biases research programme that became the foundation of behavioural economics. The book reconstructs their collaboration through biographical narrative, tracing how two very different personalities produced work that changed how economists and policymakers think about human decision-making.
Duhigg explores the neuroscience and psychology of habit formation, arguing that habits follow a three-part loop of cue, routine and reward that can be identified and deliberately modified. The book moves between individual habits and the routines embedded in organisations and societies, drawing on research and case studies from consumer marketing to public health.
Taleb argues that rare, high-impact events play a far larger role in history and financial markets than conventional probability models acknowledge, partly because those models assume distributions that do not hold in many real-world domains. The book criticises the tendency to construct retrospective explanations for unpredictable events in ways that make them seem foreseeable in hindsight.
Taleb examines the human tendency to underestimate the role of chance in outcomes and to attribute success to skill when luck is the more plausible explanation, drawing on his background as a derivatives trader to show how survivorship bias distorts our perception of competence. The book is more personal and essayistic than his later work but develops many of the same themes about probability and human overconfidence.
Bucher applies principles from motivational psychology and behavioural science to the design of digital products and services, with a particular focus on health and wellness applications. The book translates constructs such as self-determination theory, goal-setting and habit formation into practical design guidance for practitioners working on behaviour change technology.
Luca and Bazerman make the case for randomised experiments as a tool for improving decision-making in business and public policy, explaining how field experiments have been used to answer questions that observational data cannot reliably resolve. The book includes case studies from companies and government agencies and addresses both the practical challenges of running experiments and the ethical questions they raise.
Grant argues that the ability to reconsider beliefs and update views in light of new evidence is undervalued relative to the confident assertion of established positions. The book draws on psychology research and case studies to examine why people cling to outdated opinions and what conditions make intellectual updating more likely, covering both individual rethinking and the challenge of changing minds in organisations.
Thaler recounts the history of behavioural economics through his own intellectual biography, tracing his long effort to persuade mainstream economists that their models of rational agents were a poor description of actual human behaviour. The book covers concepts such as mental accounting, the endowment effect and the development of nudge theory, written in a personal style that makes the academic debates accessible to a general reader.
Thaler and Sunstein introduce the idea that it is possible to design choice environments in ways that steer people toward better outcomes while preserving their freedom to choose otherwise, a framework they call libertarian paternalism. The book covers a wide range of policy domains including retirement saving, organ donation and energy use, arguing that attending carefully to how choices are framed can have large effects on behaviour at low cost.
Sunstein examines the problem of excessive administrative friction, the forms, waiting periods and bureaucratic complexity that obstruct people trying to access services or exercise rights, arguing that this friction often falls most heavily on vulnerable populations and frequently serves no legitimate purpose. The book makes the case for systematic efforts to measure and reduce this obstruction, treating it as a distinct problem from the one Nudge addresses.
Shotton applies findings from social psychology and behavioural economics to advertising and marketing, using each of 25 chapters to introduce a specific bias and illustrate how it informs creative and strategic decisions. The book is written for practitioners in the advertising industry and draws on a mix of published psychology studies and Shotton's own survey research.
Schwartz argues that the proliferation of options in consumer culture produces anxiety, regret and decision paralysis rather than greater satisfaction. He draws on psychological research on satisficing versus maximising to show that people who insist on finding the objectively best option tend to be less satisfied with their choices than those who settle for something adequate.
Shiller analyses speculative bubbles in asset markets, arguing that prices in equities and real estate are driven substantially by psychological and social factors rather than rational assessment of fundamental value. The first edition, published just before the dot-com crash, focused on the stock market, with later editions extending the analysis to housing and bond markets.
An academic anthology bringing together essays that apply economic methods to domains traditionally outside economics, including social norms, addiction and family behaviour. Note: the verified edition of this title was co-edited by Mariano Tommasi and Kathryn Ierulli and published in 1995 by Cambridge University Press — the authorship and year in this listing may need checking.
Sapolsky examines the biological underpinnings of human behaviour, working backwards through time scales from the neuroscience of a single moment to the evolutionary pressures that shaped the brain over millions of years. The book covers hormones, neuroanatomy, genetics, development and culture, using this framework to address questions about violence, tribalism, empathy and cooperation.
Sapolsky extends the biological argument developed in Behave to its most direct philosophical conclusion, contending that every thought, decision and action is the product of prior biological and environmental causes. The book confronts the moral and legal implications of this position, addressing what it would mean for responsibility and punishment if the concept of free will is set aside.
The Idea of the Brain provides a brilliant understanding of how our concepts of the mind have evolved historically, whilst interweaving modern thinking regarding the brain and where the future for neuroscience research may lie.
One of the foundational texts of neuroeconomics, Glimcher argues that neuroscience and economics can be productively integrated by studying the neural mechanisms underlying decision-making and choice under uncertainty. He draws on his own research with primates to examine how activity in specific brain regions correlates with the computation of expected value and probability.
An introductory academic text covering the intersection of neuroscience and economic decision theory, aimed at readers approaching the field from either discipline. Note: detailed information about this specific title is limited and the description should be treated with some caution pending verification.
Banerjee and Duflo draw on a decade of field experiments in developing countries to challenge sweeping ideological claims about the causes of poverty and what aid can accomplish. Rather than arguing at the level of macro-theory, the book examines specific questions about why poor households make the food, health and education decisions they do, and tries to answer them with evidence from randomised trials.
Written after Banerjee and Duflo received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, this book addresses a set of large contemporary problems including immigration, trade, inequality and climate change, evaluating popular claims against the available economic evidence. The authors are candid about where economics has clear findings and where it does not, and they are critical of both the overconfidence of economists and the rejection of expertise in public debate.
O'Neil, a mathematician who worked in finance and data science, examines the large-scale algorithmic models used in areas such as credit scoring, policing and hiring, arguing that they frequently encode and amplify existing social inequalities while remaining opaque to the people they affect. She introduces the term "weapons of math destruction" to describe models that are widespread, opaque and damaging, particularly to people who lack the resources to contest decisions made about them.