30 Best Psychology Books which your must read!

What we read shapes our mind and our thinking procedures. Reading psychology makes us more productive, inspired and mould our ideas in a more focused manner. A number of books on psychology are available in the book world related to our needs and desires from life, relationships, business and mental health. Here is the list of best 30 books that you should read being interested in psychology:

1) Thinking, Fast and Slow

~by Daniel Kahneman

Highly recommended if you are interested in knowing why human beings behave the way they behave. Kahneman holds a Nobel Prize in economics and his work of behavioral research is reflected in this book.It explains how two systems of mind make decisions. System 1 is fast, intuitive aspect of mind; System 2 is slow, slow logical and reasoning part of mind. Amazing one, Read it!

2) The Power of Habit

~by Charles Duhigg

A good book for those who want to understand how habits are formed and changed. It explains how something becomes a habit (good or bad) by research on memory loss. The audience who can benefit from this book is vast, from individuals to corporate to government.

3) The Art of Choosing

~by Sheena Iyengar

This book asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? How much control do we have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengar’s award-winning research reveals that the answers are profound are surprising. A good and thoughtful book which will move you forward with hope.

4) Influence: Science and Practice

~by Robert B. Cialdini

Required reading for all marketing professionals. If unfolds curtains from the fact that – people do things that they see other people doing. Cialdini explains how certain things trigger automatic responses and how to defend yourself from persuasion techniques that tend to harm you rather than ethically convince you. Entrepreneurs and influencers have a must read.

5) The Social Animal

~by Elliot Aronson

This book is a brief, compelling introduction to modern social psychology . This book is what every self-help book dreams of being. Its a sum total of Aronson’s life work as a social psychologist dedicated to proving scientific answers in that field. Light and knowledge gain read.

6) The Branded Mind

~by Erik Du Plessis

The Branded Mind is about how people think about brands. Neuroscience holds lessons for how consumers respond to brands and make purchasing decisions. This book is not an easy read and requires patience all through the reading course. If you are willing to put efforts, a lot can be extracted from the book.

7) Mindfulness

~by Ellen J. Langer

In this thought-provoking book, her research has been translated for the lay reader. She determines that the mindless following of routine and other automatic behavior lead to much error and pain. The book is more of wordly but a good read.

8) You Are Not So Smart

~by David McRaney

An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise. All of us think we are smarter than everyone else but we are all delusional somehow. This is an interesting book and helps you understand how your brain is sabotaging you.

9) Sway: The irresistible pull of irrational behavior

~by Ori Braffman and Rom Braffman

Sway will change the way you think about the way you think, for those who don’t have any background in behavioral economics. The book is a compilation of anecdotes and simple ideas. The authors describe psychological forces that can sway people into irrational decision making. Engaging, entertaining and a quick read.

10) Blink: The power of thinking without thinking

~by Malcom Gladwell

Blink is an attempt to understand confusing and mysterious thing called judgement. Gladwell points out that our mind figures things in a blink of an eye. The book has interesting case studies from researches and news headlines.

11) The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil

~by Philip G. Zimbardo

This book lets you explore the mechanisms why good people do bad things, how moral people can be seduced into acting immorally, and what this says about the line separating good from evil. Its a refreshing book to be able to retain that can later be reflected on.

12) Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness

~by Thaller and Sunstein

This New York Times Bestseller was named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist and the Financial Times. Nudge is about the small subtle pushes that our modern day world makes to sway one’s opinion or real world choices. It explains why we humans persistently engage in decisions which do not benefit us in long terms.

13) Switch: How to change things when change is hard

~by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

This book aims to answer the question “Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?” A ground breaking book which addresses one of the greatest challenges of or personal and professional lives: How to change things when change is hard? The authors have structured the arguments well making it easy to pick up for anyone.

14) Predictably Irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions

~by Dan Ariely

It shows an entertaining and counter-intuitive look at the world around us. Dan Ariely challenges readers’ assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought.This book is a fairly easy read and does include some surprising results through social-science experimentation.

15) Yes! 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive

~by Noah J. Goldstein

This book is a collection of 50 persuasion techniques where each technique is based on atleast one psychology study. If you are interested in learning power of persuasion and how to make someone agree with you, then this book is for you.You will find some methods from the book creeping into your life as you try to convince people of your message.