Introduction:
The author mentions some interesting facts like most of us show a preference for the number 7. He also talks about how people keep forgetting their passwords. He states the we make mistakes but blame the wrong cause. In most cases, the human is not to blame but the poor design of the machine is.
Chapter 1 talks about our perception about our vision. The author mentions that we don't really see as much as we think we see. Many a times we just look, but we don't really see i.e. we get a general image, but we don't focus on details. He also mentions some interesting human tendencies like we are more likely to look at our right first. Author says that we don't find something often, we tend to miss it. To prove this he mentions error rate of radiologists in finding cancerous tumors.
Chapter 2 sounds like a continuation of the first chapter, however, now he changes the focus from vision to meanings. He claims that meanings matter while details don't, which is why we forget names since names don't have much of a meaning. Then he talks about slip-of-tongue errors and gives an interesting example of the slip-of-tongue error committed by Joe Theismann on national media. The author also talks about why we forge passwords and hiding places. Finally, he talks about why eye witnesses make errors in identifying the suspects.
In chapter 3, the author talks about how we connect the dots in our memory to form a complete image. In one of the examples he mentions that during a wine tasting event, people rated the more expensive wine to be the better one even though there was the same wine in one of the bottles marked with a cheaper price tag. He also mentions that smell and color play an important role in forming perceptions, for example, pink is a feminine color while black demonstrates power.
Chapter 4 talks about how we remember what we want to remember rather what really happened. The author calls this as wearing rose colored glasses. We tend to remember our victories and forget about our losses. In one of the examples he mentions students remembering their grades to be higher than what they really were and gamblers remembering their wins. He states that this hindsight bias is a cause of many human errors.
In chapter 5, the author talks about human ability to multi-task. He mentions that we are not designed to multi-task, the maximum we can do is to chew gum and walk at the same time. But doing more than one things at a time has shown that both the tasks are done clumsily due lack of concentration. Some of the examples he mentions are car accidents due to texting while driving and the airplane crash that occurred because the pilot got too bugged by a minor issue, losing his focus on flying the plane. He also mentions a term called intentional blindness by which he means that if we have something else going in our minds, we tend to not see somethings that are right in front of our eyes.
In chapter 6, author Hallinan talks about our perception of various things and how we look at different things with different paradigms. He also talks about how external factors like music can influence our behavior. In one of the examples he talks about how buyers make decisions based on the music being played and the odor present in the stores. He talks about multi unit pricing, for example, if tagged as 5 for $5, people tend to buy more. In one of the examples, he mentions an experiment where people choose a wine to be the best just because it was tagged with the highest price. This was to prove a point that we have a perception that an expensive item is usually of the best quality.
In chapter 7, the author points out how we skim over the material presented to us. We don't really read a book when we are fast-reading nor do we really pay close attention to details, like a persons facial features and other minute details. We just skim over the overall picture and get a general idea. The author also mentions that our behavior is influenced by context. In one of the examples he provides, he mentions an experiment in which the users were asked to memorize words above and under water.
In chapter 8, the author points out that people organize their thoughts and memories in their mind. The memories are not scattered over the brain, but the memories are properly organized. By tidy memory, the author means that we organize the information stored in our memories in hierarchical order. The author also mentions that people tend to alter the memories and fill in the memory gaps. When people don't remember details they tend to make them up for the story to make sense.
Chapter 9 compares and contrasts behavior of men with the behavior of women. He mentions that men are usually overconfident and tend to take more risks than women. Women are less confident than men in several areas, like operating a motor vehicle etc. He associates this difference in behavior in the way men and women are brought up. Boys tend to play outdoors and tinker around more than girls do.
In Chapter 10, Hallinan talks about over confidence. He says that over confidence is the reason why everyone think they are better than the average and believe that they are better at something than they really are. Hallinan says that everyone is overconfident, except for the people suffering from depression. He also states that companies have exploited this characteristic. Companies advertise their products in order to take advantage of this over-confidence.
In chapter 11, the author emphasizes on the fact that no one is born perfect. Practice makes man perfect. Even the people who are experts at something can be terribly bad at something else. By repeatedly practicing, one creates a library of all possible outcomes in his/her own mind. This reduces their reaction time since they can anticipate events because they are already accustomed to most possible outcomes. Finally, the author also mentions how people do things in the way they have been doing them in the past. Most people ignore new and more creative ways to solve problems.
In chapter 12, the author mainly talks about constraints and affordances. Constraints: Simple mental aids that keep us on the right track by limiting our alternatives. Affordances: Clues to how a thing can be used. He mentions that making a proper use of these two concepts can avoid a lot of human errors. Hallinan also mentions that a person's attitude has plays a major role in occurrence of errors and mistakes.
In chapter 13, the author talks about how people are often wrong about predicting outcomes of a certain event or action. As an example, he mentions a couple moving to California from Wisconsin, thinking that they would be happier in California. However, their prediction was wrong and they ended up moving back to Wisconsin. Author also talks about gift cards and how they benefit the company rather than benefiting the customer.
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