Interview with Dr. Richard E. Nisbett

From a humble beginning in Littlefield, Texas, to Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Dr. Richard Nisbett has lived an extraordinary life as a widely influential social psychologist, the key points of which he explores in his new book, Thinking: A Memoir. In this interview, Dr. Nisbett talks about his contributions to psychological research including common thinking errors people make as it pertains to thinking rationally, and teaching people how to correct them; how Asian cultures think differently than Westerners; how Americans from the South think differently than those from the North, the importance of understanding base rates and statistics in psychology, to what and how we attribute our decision making processes, and how to pick a good graduate program. Along the way, Dr. Nisbett affectionately reflects on some well-known intellectuals and researchers whom he has worked with, encounters with vastly different cultures and the implications for western psychology, and being one of the architects of a “golden age” in psychological research.

Find Dr. Nisbett’s book, Thinking: A Memoir here

Visit Dr. Nisbett’s website here

Read Dr. Nisbett’s famous article, Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes here

*Disclaimer: We weren’t compensated for this interview, and we don’t make any money off the sales of this book - we just really enjoyed it and thought you would too.