Experience is a great teacher . . . except when it isn't. In this groundbreaking guide, learn how the past can deceive and limit us -- and how healthy skepticism can build a better world. Our personal experience is key to who we are and what we do. We judge others by their experience and are judged by ours. Society venerates experience. From doctors to teachers to managers to presidents, the more experience the better. It's not surprising then, that we often fall back on experience when making decisions, an easy way to make judgements about the future, a constant teacher that provides clear lessons. Yet, this intuitive reliance on experience is misplaced. In The Myth of Experience, behavioral scientists Emre Soyer and Robin Hogarth take a transformative look at experience and the many ways it deceives and misleads us. From distorting the past to limiting creativity to reducing happiness, experience can cause misperceptions and then reinforce them without our awareness. Instead, the authors argue for a nuanced approach, where a healthy skepticism toward the lessons of experience results in more reliable decisions and sustainable growth. Soyer and Hogarth illustrate the flaws of experience -- with real-life examples from bloodletting to personal computers to pandemics -- and distill cutting-edge research as a guide to decision-making, as well as provide the remedies needed to improve our judgments and choices in the workplace and beyond.

This book offers an overview of recent research on the psychology of judgment and decision making, the field that investigates the processes by which people draw conclusions, reach evaluations, and make choices. An introductory, historically oriented chapter provides a way of viewing the overall structure of the field, its recent trends, and its possible directions. Subsequent sections present significant recent papers by prominent researchers, organized to reveal the currents, connections, and controversies that animate the field. Current trends in the field are illustrated with papers from ongoing streams of research. The papers on "connections" explore memory, explanation and argument, affect, attitudes, and motivation. Finally, a section on "controversies" presents problem representation, domain knowledge, content specificity, rule-governed versus rule-described behavior, and proposals for radical departures and new beginnings in the field. Students and researchers in psychology who have an interest in cognitive processes will find this text to be rewarding reading.

In "Educating Intuition", Robin Hogarth offers the first comprehensive overview of what the science of psychology can tell us about intuition - where it comes from, how it works, whether we can trust it. He finds that intuition is a normal and important component of thought that has its roots in processes of tacit learning. Environment, attention, experience, expertise, and the success of the scientific method all form part of Hogarth's perspective on intuition, leading him to the surprising - but natural - conclusion that we can educate our sixth sense. To this end he offers concrete suggestions and exercises to help readers develop their intuitive skills and habits for learning the 'right' lessons from experience. Artfully and accessibly combining cognitive science, the latest research in psychology, and Hogarth's own observations, "Educating Intuition" eschews the vague approach to the topic that has become commonplace and provides instead a wholly engaging and practical guide to enhancing our intuitive skills.

CONTENTS: Foreword, Vanessa Northington Gamble "Introduction: Healing and the History of Medicine in the Atlantic World," Sean Morey Smith and Christopher D. E. Willoughby "Zemis and Zombies: Amerindian Healing Legacies on Hispaniola," Lauren Derby "Poisoned Relations: Medical Choices and Poison Accusations within Enslaved Communities," Chelsea Berry "Blood and Hair: Barbers, Sangradores, and the West African Corporeal Imagination in Salvador da Bahia, 1793-1843," Mary E. Hicks "Examining Antebellum Medicine through Haptic Studies," Deirdre Cooper Owens "Unbelievable Suffering: Rethinking Feigned Illness in Slavery and the Slave Trade," Elise A. Mitchell "Medicalizing Manumission: Slavery, Disability, and Medical Testimony in Late Colonial Colombia," Brandi M. Waters "A Case Study in Charleston: Impressions of the Early National Slave Hospital," Rana A. Hogarth "From Skin to Blood: Interpreting Racial Immunity to Yellow Fever," Timothy James Lockley "Black Bodies, Medical Science, and the Age of Emancipation," Leslie A. Schwalm "Epilogue: Black Atlantic Healing in the Wake," Sharla M. Fett