Coming soon · Book Profile
Libad229aa4edb236d3
A consumer psychologist reveals how human decisions are 'manufactured' from the interplay of cognitive machinery, motivational controls, and informational raw materials—and why we so predictably deviate from rational choice.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Drawing on decades of behavioral decision research, Ryan Hamilton uses a vivid manufacturing metaphor to demystify how people actually decide. Decisions, he argues, are assembled from three ingredients: the cognitive machinery of two mental systems, a motivational control panel of goals and mindsets, and the informational raw materials supplied by context, framing, memory, and choice architecture. Across 24 lectures he explains heuristics, habits, self-regulation depletion, prospect theory, emotion, reason-based choice, mental accounting, social influence, nonconscious primes, evolutionary drives, regulatory focus, decision rules, context and framing effects, evaluability, and halo effects. The payoff is practical: with the right conceptual tools you can understand, anticipate, and influence decisions—your own and others'—and design better choices, from saving more money to eating less.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A curious learner who wants to understand—and improve—how they and others make decisions.
- The problem
- Decisions feel mysterious, and people (including the reader) repeatedly make choices that backfire or seem irrational. They feel confused, manipulated, and uncertain about whether they can trust their own judgment.
- The plan
- Adopt the manufacturing metaphor: separate cognitive machinery, motivation, and informational inputs.
- Learn how System 1 and System 2 interact and where heuristics, habits, and depletion arise.
- Understand the motivational control panel: goals, mindsets, regulatory focus, and evolutionary drives.
- Master the raw-material effects: context, framing, memory, assortment, evaluability, and halos.
- Apply the four Rs (reference points, reasons, resources, replacement) and stack insights to design better decisions.
- The payoff
- The reader can anticipate and explain their own and others' decisions. · They design choices (for themselves, customers, or organizations) that lead to better outcomes like saving more or eating healthier. · They become a more responsible, skeptical consumer of decision research.
See our guide
- Agriculture, Fishing & Forestry Leader →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Make Sound Decisions Under Uncertainty →
- Construction Leader →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- Law Firm Leader →
- Maintenance & Repair Leader →
- Professional Services Firm Leader →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Transportation & Logistics Leader →
Related profiles we’ve built
- Agricultural Medicine →
- Antifragile (Incerto) →
- Atomic Habits →
- An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization →
- Anxiety at Work_ 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done →
- Apa Handbook Io V2 →
- Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management →
- Armstrong’s Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management →
Additional reading
- Diseases of Workers · Bernardo Ramazzini
Cited as the foundational text of occupational medicine, written in the early 1700s, which describes many occupationally related diseases observed in farm patients that are still recognized today.
- The Triple Bottom Line · Andrew Savitz
Introduces the concept of sustainability resting on three pillars: profit, planet, and people. The book uses this to argue that the 'people' component (human capital/worker health) is often dangerously neglected in agriculture.
- The Omnivore's Dilemma · Michael Pollan
Referenced as an example of popular literature that reflects and advocates for the rising consumer voice and public scrutiny concerning sustainable food systems, which is a major trend impacting modern agriculture.
- Silent Spring · Rachel Carson
Cited as the landmark 1962 book that launched the modern environmental movement and fundamentally shifted public and governmental attention toward the potential harms of pesticides, shaping decades of regulation and risk perception.
- Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies · Charles Perrow
The book's theory of 'system accidents' and 'tight coupling' is used by Gonzales to explain how cascading failures, like the Mount Hood climbing disaster, are inevitable features of certain complex systems.
- The Emotional Brain & The Synaptic Self · Joseph LeDoux
LeDoux's neuroscience research on the amygdala's role in fear and memory forms the scientific backbone of Gonzales's argument about how emotion can hijack reason in a crisis.
- The Survivor Personality · Al Siebert
Gonzales cites Siebert's psychological research on the traits of survivors, such as their use of playfulness and humor to stay in contact with reality and manage threats.
- Touching the Void · Joe Simpson
This book provides one of the primary and most detailed case studies Gonzales analyzes to illustrate the psychology of a survivor, including managing pain, using patterns, and the will to live.
- Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea · Steven Callahan
Callahan's story serves as a textbook example of the ideal survivor mindset in action, demonstrating nearly all of the '12 Rules' Gonzales outlines, such as maintaining routine, finding beauty, and surrendering without giving up.
- All Quiet on the Western Front · Erich Maria Remarque
Gonzales quotes Remarque's novel to illustrate the development of instinctual, life-saving secondary emotions in soldiers, a key concept in how experience rewires the brain for survival.