This was an interesting read, with the insight into closure being a particularly interesting section. I am not sure how much I was won over with other sections of the book. An enjoyable read still.

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

Black and White Thinking is an incredible book, as it goes deeply into human thinking we ourselves aren’t aware of, and explains what seems non-understandable. The author is using really good and mostly contemporary examples to explain, once you understand them, interesting concepts of human thinking. I really enjoyed the examples related to Corona and Brexit, as I noticed the blurred lines in certain decisions and the “lack of logic” in some instances.

I enjoyed learning while I was reading, as a lot of concepts were new for me - I might have stumbled across them but never thought about life in that way. Definitely worth a read and I know I myself will be coming back to this book again in the future.

"Black and White Thinking is an alarm call." This is 100% true with this book. After reading Black and White Thinking, you will definitely find yourself challenging your own opinions walking away after reading it. I can't write a good enough review for this after reading it due to how poignant the whole book was.

Back to the Stone Age for Choice Architecture


The book, Black and White Thinking by Dr Kevin Dutton (Penguin Random House UK) delves into the complexity of our thinking and our apparent desire to think in terms of - seemingly - simple categories.

The findings unfold as the author takes an imaginary trip, consulting the works of ancient thinkers and conversing with prominent scientist of the research on categorisation and beyond.

The key ingredients for anyone working with people are the need-for-cognitive closure and need-for-cognitive-complexity.

The need for cognitive closure means the extent to which one tolerates ambiguity and desires to find an answer to a question. The higher the need for cognitive closure, the more one aims at finding certainty, i.e. answers to questions.

Cognitive complexity refers to our mental lenses that we were born with, but which are shaped by experience. A high need for cognitive complexity means one considers decisions from numerous angles. Low need for cognitive complexity means that one relies on fewer frames when facing a decision: light or dark, good or bad.

The combination of these two needs explains the potential choice architecture our consumers may prefer.

Someone with a high need for closure and a low need for cognitive complexity likes to be certain about things but doesn’t like to think about them too much. The person is likely to reach a decision fast.

On the other hand, someone with a high need for closure and a high need for cognitive complexity wants answers but also wants nuance and will keep looking for them. Consequently, this person will take longer to make a decision.

Thinking about customers in this way may help determine what kind of choice architecture they prefer. Complex yet simple? Or complex with lots of different options? Are they happy with single recommendations? Or shall we give them some options with lots of nuanced details?

Amazon’s side by side comparison of options along many features seems to resonate with customers with a high need for cognitive closure (they want to arrive at the best possible decision) and high need for cognitive complexity (they love details and may take their time to understand all the nuances before they reach a decision).

Why bother with yet another cognitive model for ‘segmenting’ customers? The reason is that the need for cognitive closure and complexity have been with us since the Stone Age - and they are still driving one of the basic decision making processes. It is the inherent nature of this mental structure that guarantees its usefulness in influencing consumer decision.

Black and White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World is a groundbreaking and timely book about how evolutionary biology can explain our black-and-white brains, and a lesson in how we can escape the pitfalls of binary thinking. Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment--a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch--was essential to our survival as a species. Since then, the world has evolved--but we, for the most part, haven't. Confronted with a panoply of shades of grey, our brains have a tendency to "force quit: " to sort the things we see, hear, and experience into manageable but simplistic categories. We stereotype, pigeon-hole, and, above all, draw lines where in reality there are none. In our modern, interconnected world, it might seem like we are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we face--that living with a binary brain is like trying to navigate a teeming city centre with a map that shows only highways.

In Black-and-White Thinking, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton pulls back the curtains of the mind to reveal a new way of thinking about a problem as old as humanity itself. While our instinct for categorization often leads us astray, encouraging polarization, rigid thinking, and sometimes outright denialism, it is an essential component of the mental machinery we use to make sense of the world. Simply put, unless we perceived our environment as a chessboard, our brains wouldn't be able to play the game. Using the latest advances in psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, Dutton shows how we can optimize our tendency to categorize and fine-tune our minds to avoid the pitfalls of too little, and too much, complexity. He reveals the enduring importance of three "super categories"--fight or flight, us versus them, and right or wrong--and argues that they remain essential to not only convincing others to change their minds but to changing the world for the better. Black-and-White Thinking is a scientifically informed wake-up call for an era of increasing extremism and a thought-provoking, uplifting guide to training our grey matter to see that grey really does matter.

This is an absolutely fascinating read by a prominent psychologist who usually specialises in psychopathy but this is very much a departure from that topic. It's structured well, is full of fascinating information and you can tell that extensive research went into crafting the entirety of the book. There is so much to intrigue between these pages that will have your cogs whirring and you ruminating on the ideas presented. Although Dr Dutton could easily have explored this subject in such a way that a layperson or someone new to psychology and this field of study would struggle to comprehend, I feel this has been written in a straightforward and easily understandable fashion and is accessible to anyone with an interest in psychology, the psyche and the reality of our behaviour. That said, it is quite a dense read, but I was so engrossed and engaged that I went racing through it rather rapidly. If you wish to know more about the way in which our brains work when confronted with different situations then this is well worth your time; in fact, I'd recommend this highly to anyone interested in psychology. A compelling and eminently readable book. Many thanks to Bantam Press for an ARC.