Gerd Gigerenzer

Gut Feelings

To make a decision we should carefully consider all aspects of the question before coming to a conclusion, shouldn't we? Not according to Gerd Gigerenzer. In Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious he argues that the quick, off the cuff decision will often be better than that reached by long deliberation.

The book is in two parts. The first 'Unconscious intelligence' looks at where our intuition comes from - the nature and evolution of our brains, and how we have learned to make quick decisions. The second part 'Gut feelings in action' gives some real world examples of the benefits of using our intution. When people are asked a question, such as which of two cities is larger, those with limited knowledge who only recognise one of them often do better than the more knowledgeable ones. Gigerenzer goes on to describe how making decisions based on a single criterion is likely to be better than a detailed weighing of all of the information available. There is also chapter on how this sort of decision making can provide benefits in healthcare. The book ends with chapters on moral values and social instincts.

The subject of intuition and it benefits is a popular one for authors - or at least I've read quite a few books on this topic recently. I think that Gut Feelings is one of the best in that it is amusing and easy to read, but is also useful as a guide for those wishing to improve their decision making.

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 288 pages
ISBN: 0670038636
Salesrank: 114028
Weight:0.85 lbs

Published: 2007 Viking Adult

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Amazon.co.uk info

Paperback 288 pages
ISBN: 0143113763
Salesrank: 556773

Published: 2008 Penguin Books

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Amazon.ca info

Hardcover 288 pages
ISBN: 0670038636
Salesrank: 64116
Weight:0.85 lbs

Published: 2007 Viking USA

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Product Description
Why is split second decision-making superior to deliberation? Gut Feelings delivers the science behind Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Much better qualified to help us make decisions is the cognitive, emotional, and social repertoire we call intuition—a suite of gut feelings that have evolved over the millennia specifically for making decisions. “Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer’s research. But Gigerenzer goes a step further by explaining just why our gut instincts are so often right. Intuition, it seems, is not some sort of mystical chemical reaction but a neurologically based behavior that evolved to ensure that we humans respond quickly when faced with a dilemma” (BusinessWeek).

Product Description

Why is split second decision-making superior to deliberation? Gut Feelings delivers the science behind Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink

Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Much better qualified to help us make decisions is the cognitive, emotional, and social repertoire we call intuition—a suite of gut feelings that have evolved over the millennia specifically for making decisions. “Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer’s research. But Gigerenzer goes a step further by explaining just why our gut instincts are so often right. Intuition, it seems, is not some sort of mystical chemical reaction but a neurologically based behavior that evolved to ensure that we humans respond quickly when faced with a dilemma” (BusinessWeek).

Making sense of the social brain *****
Why are amateurs better than professionals at picking stocks? Why are 99.9 percent of French citizens registered as organ donors but only 28 percent of Americans? How did a simple rumor bring down the Berlin Wall? Gigerenzer focuses primarily on the advantages intuition and instinct bestow on us, using "rules of thumb" to guide behavior. Whether we're trying to catch a baseball, make a killing on the stock market, or choose a spouse, instinct is more useful than analytic thinking. A professor of psychology and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Gigerenzer divides his book in two sections, "Unconscious Intelligence" and "Gut Feelings in Action." The first includes a discussion of how intuition works, why less is more, and the importance of forgetting. He discusses sharing, doing unto others as they do unto you, and why too much logic can spoil a good decision. When a group of Americans and a group of Germans were asked which city had the most population, Detroit or Milwaukee, the Germans overwhelmingly beat the Americans. Why? Because the Germans had never heard of Milwaukee so they went with the city they had heard of. This same "rule of thumb" is why amateurs so often beat analysts when it comes to stock picking and why brand names work. As for the organ donor question - in France people have to opt out of the program, in the U.S. people have to opt in. If there is a default, people defer to it, no matter how simple it is to go another way. The second section shows how rules of thumb work in areas like health care (less is more), politics (name recognition, one good reason is enough), romance, and morality. Sometimes, Gigerenzer shows, gut feelings let us down, as in mob mentality, when people are reluctant to detach from the group. But the power of wishful thinking brought down the Berlin Wall when rumor and desire combined to convince a vast swarm that the wall was open - therefore it was. Conversational, well organized, and backed with lots of experiments and studies, Gigerenzer's book is an enjoyable, thought-provoking, practical view of human nature at work.

Making sense of the social brain *****

Why are amateurs better than professionals at picking stocks? Why are 99.9 percent of French citizens registered as organ donors but only 28 percent of Americans? How did a simple rumor bring down the Berlin Wall?

Gigerenzer focuses primarily on the advantages intuition and instinct bestow on us, using "rules of thumb" to guide behavior. Whether we're trying to catch a baseball, make a killing on the stock market, or choose a spouse, instinct is more useful than analytic thinking.

A professor of psychology and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Gigerenzer divides his book in two sections, "Unconscious Intelligence" and "Gut Feelings in Action." The first includes a discussion of how intuition works, why less is more, and the importance of forgetting. He discusses sharing, doing unto others as they do unto you, and why too much logic can spoil a good decision.

When a group of Americans and a group of Germans were asked which city had the most population, Detroit or Milwaukee, the Germans overwhelmingly beat the Americans. Why? Because the Germans had never heard of Milwaukee so they went with the city they had heard of. This same "rule of thumb" is why amateurs so often beat analysts when it comes to stock picking and why brand names work.

As for the organ donor question - in France people have to opt out of the program, in the U.S. people have to opt in. If there is a default, people defer to it, no matter how simple it is to go another way.

The second section shows how rules of thumb work in areas like health care (less is more), politics (name recognition, one good reason is enough), romance, and morality.

Sometimes, Gigerenzer shows, gut feelings let us down, as in mob mentality, when people are reluctant to detach from the group. But the power of wishful thinking brought down the Berlin Wall when rumor and desire combined to convince a vast swarm that the wall was open - therefore it was.

Conversational, well organized, and backed with lots of experiments and studies, Gigerenzer's book is an enjoyable, thought-provoking, practical view of human nature at work.

Accessible! *****
Much of the material here, was in Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer other earlier books, which included difficult words like Heuristic, in their titles. This has the potential to be a truly popular book, which is a boom to individuals who are trying to understand why they and others react the way they do, often apparently illogically.

Accessible! *****

Much of the material here, was in Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer other earlier books, which included difficult words like Heuristic, in their titles.

This has the potential to be a truly popular book, which is a boom to individuals who are trying to understand why they and others react the way they do, often apparently illogically.

the substance missing from Blink *****
when reading Gladwell's Blink, I kept hoping that by the end of the book something about how my brain worked would be revealed. Well, I got a sense that the Blink-like decisions I made on a daily basis are more common than I thought and with a wider scope (racism etc). What was incredibly disappointing about Blink was that I walked away with no more insight. yes some examples were articulated, but this in some ways was not really the promise of the book. the promise of walking away with something concrete is fulfilled in Gut feelings, which is almost like a response to Blink; the author is saying to Gladwell "this is how its done, young jedi!". Get this book if you want to know why you fight with your spouse or why you get along with them. get this book if you want to understand how to improve yourself by having more insight into how your brain is wired. get this book and his other book on Risk, and you will become a better person. not a cheap promise.

the substance missing from Blink *****

when reading Gladwell's Blink, I kept hoping that by the end of the book something about how my brain worked would be revealed. Well, I got a sense that the Blink-like decisions I made on a daily basis are more common than I thought and with a wider scope (racism etc). What was incredibly disappointing about Blink was that I walked away with no more insight. yes some examples were articulated, but this in some ways was not really the promise of the book. the promise of walking away with something concrete is fulfilled in Gut feelings, which is almost like a response to Blink; the author is saying to Gladwell "this is how its done, young jedi!". Get this book if you want to know why you fight with your spouse or why you get along with them. get this book if you want to understand how to improve yourself by having more insight into how your brain is wired. get this book and his other book on Risk, and you will become a better person. not a cheap promise.

Truly interesting, but it's a one-insight book that gets repetitive. ****
This is a solid book, based on a very interesting insight: that in a lot of cases, more information doesn't lead to better decisions, but worse ones. As it turns out, the additional information only serves to obscure our view of the most important factor in the decision. This isn't just true for fallible human brains, but also when all the data is plugged into a computer for a big, nasty regression equation. Cool, huh? So why not five stars? Because the book peaks in the first two chapters as Gerd Gigerenzer (truly one of the all-time great author names) very clearly explains his insight to you using the fascinating concept of how humans catch a fly ball. (Hint: it isn't by doing all sorts of subconscious calculations about speed and trajectory) From there on out, it's just one example after another of the same concept. By chapter four, when new examples get introduced, you're already projecting out exactly how people traditionally view it and how Gigerenzer's research shows things actually work. The good news is that shows Gigerenzer is a good teacher; the bad news is that the book is clearly too long. So I'd highly recommend this first two or three chapters of this book to learn about Gigerenzer's very interesting, counter-intuitive and well-explained insight. As soon as you feel like you get the idea, though, I'd move on to your next book - you won't be missing any new ideas.

Truly interesting, but it's a one-insight book that gets repetitive. ****

This is a solid book, based on a very interesting insight: that in a lot of cases, more information doesn't lead to better decisions, but worse ones. As it turns out, the additional information only serves to obscure our view of the most important factor in the decision. This isn't just true for fallible human brains, but also when all the data is plugged into a computer for a big, nasty regression equation.

Cool, huh?

So why not five stars?

Because the book peaks in the first two chapters as Gerd Gigerenzer (truly one of the all-time great author names) very clearly explains his insight to you using the fascinating concept of how humans catch a fly ball. (Hint: it isn't by doing all sorts of subconscious calculations about speed and trajectory)

From there on out, it's just one example after another of the same concept. By chapter four, when new examples get introduced, you're already projecting out exactly how people traditionally view it and how Gigerenzer's research shows things actually work. The good news is that shows Gigerenzer is a good teacher; the bad news is that the book is clearly too long.

So I'd highly recommend this first two or three chapters of this book to learn about Gigerenzer's very interesting, counter-intuitive and well-explained insight. As soon as you feel like you get the idea, though, I'd move on to your next book - you won't be missing any new ideas.

Fantastic find! *****
I have had acid reflux for about seven years now and after reading this book and applying their suggestions I have been off my medicine and feeling better than I have in years! I truly can't believe the solution was so simple after spending much time and money on doctor visits and medication that didn't work. I highly recommend this book to anyone suffering from digestive problems.

Fantastic find! *****

I have had acid reflux for about seven years now and after reading this book and applying their suggestions I have been off my medicine and feeling better than I have in years! I truly can't believe the solution was so simple after spending much time and money on doctor visits and medication that didn't work. I highly recommend this book to anyone suffering from digestive problems.