Books like Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)

01

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.

02

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

Philip Zimbardo · Psychology

Philip Zimbardo designed the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, then watched it spin out of control within days.

A kindred psychology read.

03

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.

04

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert · Psychology

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist whose central finding, after decades of studying affective forecasting, is that humans are systematically wrong about what will make them happy.

A kindred psychology read.

05

The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty

Dan Ariely · Psychology

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist at Duke who studies irrational behavior, and this book applies that framework to a question most people prefer not to examine too closely: why do people cheat?

A kindred psychology read.

06

When Prophecy Fails

Leon Festinger · Psychology

When Prophecy Fails is the account of an observational study Leon Festinger and his colleagues conducted by infiltrating a small doomsday cult in the American Midwest in the early 1950s.

Shares cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias with Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me).

07

Expert Political Judgment

Philip Tetlock · Psychology

Expert Political Judgment is Philip Tetlock's report on a twenty-year study of political forecasters.

Both dig into accountability.

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 memory.

09

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

Leonard Mlodinow · Psychology

Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist who writes accessible science for general audiences.

Both dig into memory.

10

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

Chip Heath and Dan Heath · Psychology

The Power of Moments is Chip and Dan Heath's investigation into why certain brief experiences have an outsized and lasting effect on how we remember events, people, and institutions.

Both dig into memory.

11

The Seven Sins of Memory

Daniel Schacter · Psychology

The Seven Sins of Memory is Daniel Schacter's account of the ways human memory routinely fails, organized around a taxonomy he developed to make the failures legible.

Both dig into memory.

12

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

Both dig into memory.