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We’ve updated our free guide to behavioral science literature, The Essentia Reading List.

This comprehensive list includes some exciting new titles, alongside many behavioral classics. If you’re new to the subject, we’ve shortlisted below our five must-reads to get you started.

As a new feature for this update, we’ve also broken the titles down into handy categories and highlighted our team favorites.

Happy reading! And let us know if we’re missing your favorite for the next edition!

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Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

Caldini’s Influence transformed the way we think about the craft of persuasion. Here, he explores the new insight that it isn’t just what you say or how you say it that is important, but also what happens in the moments before you speak. Cialdini explores the subtle turns of phrase, slight visual cues and a range of other seemingly unimportant factors that you should be aware of if you want to maximize your powers of ‘pre-suasion’.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Why don’t spies get caught? How did Bernie Madoff get away with fraud for so long? Why did Amanda Knox look guilty even though she wasn’t? This thought-provoking book explains why we so often judge strangers incorrectly. Drawing on history and psychology, Gladwell dissects compelling stories of deceit and fatal error to take us on an intellectual journey — one that leads us to rethink our strategies for dealing with strangers and the unknown.

How to Decide by Annie Duke

Fomer professional poker player Annie Duke lays out a series of tools that anyone can use to make better decisions. Duke’s main thesis is that good decision-making is a teachable skill which can be learned and sharpened. Through a series of exercises and thought experiments, she shows how to dismantle hidden biases, incorporate feedback and become a better, more confident decision-maker — all whilst remaining true to your personal goals and values.

Return of the Active Manager by C. Thomas Howard & Jason A. Voss

Whether you’re a research analyst, portfolio manager, private wealth advisor or manager search consultant, Howard & Voss argue that — at the heart of sustainable wealth creation — is the management of one’s own behavior and emotions. This book draws on the lessons of behavioral finance to provide a practical set of tools that enable investment professionals to overcome and take advantage of their behavioral biases. The authors also offer detailed and actionable advice on topics such as behaviorally-enhanced fundamental analysis, active equity fund evaluation, harnessing big data, and investment firm structures.

Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2020)

Why should we never listen to people who explain rather than do? Why do companies go bust? Why does imposing democracy on other countries never work? The answer according to Taleb is that too many people running the world don’t have skin in the game. Having something to lose, he argues, is fundamental to wise, fair and just decision-making. Understanding who does and who doesn’t bear this kind of risk is critical to properly evaluating the strength of their ideas, policy or business decisions.

Download the full reading list as a free PDF here.

Have a suggestion for our reading list? Please send it to us at [email protected] and we’ll include it in our next update.