Irrationality: Stuart Sutherland

"Irrationality"

This book is a favourite

Finished in 2007
This is a book about the various ways in which people behave irrationally, usually through misinterpretation of information that is available to them either willfully or by not thinking clearly enough. It's absolutely fascinating. Essentially the book is a digest of many years of published psychological research by many different people, and it made me look at my own behaviour and realise that I (and just about everyone I know) often behave in irrational ways. In particular the chapters on how statistical data is misintepreted even by highly educated professionals made me feel that a better grasp of probability and statistics would benefit all of us. But aside from any salutory lessons it's also a very humourous and entertaining read (and also reminded me a bit of Eric Berne's Games People Play). You really should read this book.