The Biased Mind

Michel De Lara is an internationally renowned scholar in the mathematics of risk and decision for sustainable management. After having graduated from École Polytechnique, in Paris, he developed his career at École des Ponts ParisTech, in France. He has broad interests that encompass ecology, psychology and economics and has published several books with Springer. Jérôme Boutang is Executive Director of the Center on Atmospheric Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (CITEPA), in Paris, France. With a background in Agronomy and Economics, as well as 25 years of successful international consulting and industry marketing, he has long been confronted with risk perceptions regarding food and environmental issues.

Introduction.- Embark on the mind tour.- Better be paranoid to survive.- We like things the way they are.- Our detective mind grasps clues and narrates.- Images call more to mind than words and numbers.- How to balance pros and cons and other helpful hints.- I frame, you're framed.- Epilogue: does it really pay to weigh up our biases.

"The book provides clear and accessible definitions of complex concepts captured in behavioral theories and models ... . This book is a nice read for a wide variety of minds, tastes, and training, with something to offer everyone in terms of entertainment, helping to better understand one's self and others, and providing a valuable collection of scientific, artistic, and popular resources on the matter of how our minds work." (Shabnam Mousavi, Journal of Bioeconomics, Vol. 19 (2), January, 2017)

"Jerome Boutang and Michel De Lara explore how evolution shaped our psychology, in an attempt to unravel what makes people 'tick'. ... subjects are most interesting, and laymen will find a lot of food for thought to munch on. ... . I really enjoyed the pace and the authors' voices - direct, humorous and very reader friendly. ... There also some very fun quizzes and exercises that you can take to test how biased you are, which nicely add to engagement." (Tibi Puiu, zmescience.com, November, 2015)