HOW WE DECIDE
By Jonah Lehrer
First Mariner Books, 2010, 302 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
The author shares a number of stories to demonstrate decisions people make. He goes on to speak to the neurological reasons behind the decisions in the stories. Stories include split-decisions by airplane pilots, sports figures, military members, etc. The neurological portion speaks to the role of different brain centers, dopamine levels and the like.
The examples and logic seem sound enough. As with any work on human thought process, there is an overlying question as to whether brain activity causes the decision outcome, or if the person’s thought process results in the displayed brain activity. Another way to think about this dilemma is whether we act as a result of our biology, or the controller of our biology; nature or nurture.
A look at Wikipedia reveals the following:
On March 1, 2013, following revelations that Lehrer has been caught in numerous falsifications in his œuvre of writings, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced the book was taken "off sale" after an internal review.
First Mariner Books is a brand of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. There is no indication as to whether this particular work is in question. Of course this sort of shadow makes all the ideas immediately suspect. Despite that, if the reader takes the information with a grain of salt (as we should on any work) there are some nuggets of ideas worth considering. Skepticism on anything claiming to be factual is a good idea, but at the same time we should be open to differing perspectives.
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