Okay, I want to learn more. What should I read?

Below is a list of the best books and articles on bias and rationalizations I've read during my research. The very best have stars by them, but all of them are pretty mind-expanding. Read on!

Books on Irrationality and Rationalizations

*Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: the exercise of control. New York; W. H. Freeman. An outstanding review of the "self-fulfilling" effects of beliefs about your own capabilities. Potentially life-changing, seriously.

**Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and practice (Fourth Edition). Alyn and Bacon. The best introduction to the social psychology of influence. Extremely readable and entertaining.

Elster, J. (1983). Sour Grapes: Studies in the subversion of rationality. Cambridge University Press. An academic take on rationality and irrationality, with a focus on common paradoxes of rationality in everyday life (such as "Be spontaneous!", and etc.).

Gigerenzer, G. (2000) Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the real world. Oxford University Press. An contrarian voice in the "rationality debates," Gigerenzer points out the usefulness of many "biases" social psychologists have studied and argued for.

Gilovich, T. (1991). How We Know What Isn’t So: The fallibility of reason in everyday life. Free Press. A great popular introduction to the social psychology of bias by one of the fields major figures.

*Nisbett, R. E. & Ross, L. (1980). Human Inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Prentice-Hall, Inc. A modern classic on how we make judgments about ourselves and others. A complex book, and difficult to find, but full of insights.

*Oyama, S. (2000). The Ontogeny of Information. Duke University Press. One of my very favorite books (seriously, of all books), Oyama brilliantly dissects the common dualities that plague philosophical debates in psychology and biology, such as "nature vs. nurture" and "person vs. situation." Outstanding argument for more "systems" thinking.

**Plous, S. (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Probably the best and friendliest academic guide to the social psychology of bias in decision-making.

Ramachandran, V. S. (1998). Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the mysteries of the human mind. Quill (HarperCollins). Neurology patients can teach us a lot about the mind, and Ramachandran has a particularly philosophical touch with his research and theories. A mind-expanding read.

*Ross, L. & Nisbett, R. E. (1991). The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of social psychology. McGraw-Hill, Inc. The best introduction to social psychology I've ever read. If you're interest in social psychology, you won't be disappointed.

Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J., & Fisch, R. (1974). Change: Principles of problem formation and problem resolution. W. W. Norton & Company. Watzlawick isn't as well known as he should be, but this book is fairly popular and is extremely insightful on the everyday paradoxes that get people into trouble. Very intriguing.

Wegner, D. M. (2002). The Illusion of Conscious Will. MIT Press. Wegner argues that people often think something is under their control when it is not (and vice versa). Not really about free will in the traditional sense, it is certainly an intriguing position, if a little extreme.

**Wilson, T. D. (2002). Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. One of my very favorites. Wilson is one of the few modern experimental psychologists to explore the possibility of "unconscious" beliefs and desires, and does so in a very accessible fashion. Subtly changed the way I think.

Articles on Irrationality and Rationalizations

Føllesdal, D. (1981). Understanding and Rationality. In Herman Parret, ed., Meaning and Understanding, pp. 154-168. Berlin: de Gruyter. An excellent (but hard to find) article on the role and importance of rationality in making sense of one another.

Kahneman, D. (2003). Maps of Bounded Rationality: A perspective of intuitive judgment and choice. In Tore Frängsmyr, ed., Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2002. Nobel Foundation, Stockholm. Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize for his research on biases, done with his long-time research partner, the late Amos Tversky. This is his lecture for the prize, and is very readable and clear.

Kunda, Z. (1990). The Case for Motivated Reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 480-498. An excellent review of the difference between "hot" biases (biases due to emotions, motivation, and etc.) and "cold" biases (biases due to dispassionate errors in reasoning).

Nisbett, R. E. & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259. Classic article on erroneously explanations for one's own actions. Opened the floodgates of research, with mixed results.

**Orwell, G. (1945). Notes on Nationalism. In Essays, 2002. Everyman Library. Probably the best article on ideology and bias I've ever read. Not too surprising from the author of 1984 and Animal Farm. Excellent.

Rorty, R. (2000). Universability and Truth. In Robert Brandom, ed., Rorty and His Critics. Blackwell Publishers. Rorty argues against the metaphysical uses that "rationality" is often put to, and does so in his usual provocative and brilliant way. Check it out.

Ross, L. (1977). The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In Berkowitz, ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 173-220. Another classic article in psychology, reviewing the biases involved in understanding ourselves and other people, and reviews the authors well-known "fundamental attribution error."

*Ross, L. & Ward, A. (1996). Naive Realism: Implications for social conflict and misunderstanding. In T. Brown, E. Reed, & E. Turiel, eds., Values and Knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. A contemporary article on the implications for biases in social conflict. Immediately mind-expanding, and should be read before attending any political rally (or counter-rally, etc.)

Snyder, M. (1984). When belief creates reality. In M.P. Zanna, ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 247-305. A review of the research on "self-fulfilling beliefs" by one of the major experimenters in the field.