Books like Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion

01

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini · Psychology

Influence is Robert Cialdini's account of why people say yes, and how that agreement is manufactured.

Both dig into persuasion.

02

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred psychology read.

03

Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade

Robert B. Cialdini · Psychology

Robert Cialdini spent decades studying the principles of persuasion that animate Influence, his 1984 masterwork.

Shares persuasion and influence with Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion.

04

You Are Not So Smart

David McRaney · Psychology

David McRaney is a journalist who started a blog called "You Are Not So Smart" about self-delusion in 2009, and turned it into this book in 2011.

A kindred psychology read.

05

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini · Psychology

Influence, New and Expanded is the 2021 revision of Robert Cialdini's foundational 1984 work on the psychology of persuasion.

Shares persuasion and influence with Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion.

06

The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others

Tali Sharot · Psychology

Tali Sharot's second book turns from how our own brains distort perception to how we can change what other people think and do.

Shares persuasion and influence with Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion.

07

Never Split the Difference

Chris Voss · Business

Never Split the Difference is Chris Voss's argument that the rational, compromise-based negotiation frameworks taught in business schools miss something fundamental about how people actually make decisions.

Shares persuasion and influence with Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion.

08

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath and Dan Heath · Psychology

Made to Stick is Chip and Dan Heath's investigation into why some ideas take hold in people's minds and spread while others, equally true and well-reasoned, vanish the moment the conversation ends.

Both dig into persuasion.

09

The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It Every Time

Maria Konnikova · Psychology

Maria Konnikova has a PhD in psychology and writes about it for a wide audience.

Both dig into persuasion.

10

The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes

David Robson · Psychology

The Intelligence Trap is science journalist David Robson's investigation into a paradox: high intelligence and education do not protect against bad reasoning, and can actively make it worse.

Both dig into critical thinking.

11

The Social Animal

Elliot Aronson · Psychology

Elliot Aronson is one of the most influential social psychologists in the history of the field, and The Social Animal, first published in 1972 and now in its twelfth edition, is the textbook introduction to social psychology that has shaped how generations of students think about human behavior.

Both dig into persuasion.

12

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell · Psychology

The Tipping Point is Malcolm Gladwell's argument that social change happens in sudden, dramatic ways — the same way a virus tips into an epidemic — and that understanding the mechanics of those tipping moments lets you engineer them.

Both dig into influence.