Welcome to the Behavioral Ethics Bookshelf
Explore the digital office of a behavioral compliance expert with this curated list of books, articles, and resources for all things behavioral ethics and compliance.
Books | Quick Reads | Deep Dive
Although written for a popular audience, there's no fluff here—these key books will get you started on the behavioral ethics and compliance journey.
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
By Daniel Kahneman | Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman is the starting point for understanding much of behavioral science and dual system thinking that underlies it. If there is one book you read, make sure this is the one. [Note: It’s surprisingly dense for a popular book, but worth the effort.]
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The Last Mile: Creating Social and Economic Value from Behavoiral Insights
By Dilip Soman | One of the few behavioral science books that clearly ties theory and application together, all in an easy-to-read format. Its strength is providing a host of practical tools to overcome “last mile” problems, those breakdowns from production to take-up—critical for behavioral compliance solutions.
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Judgement in Managerial Decision Making
By Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore | Not only about ethics and compliance, but this book is a primary text in many MBA judgment and decision-making classrooms.
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The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves
Dan Ariely | From possibly the best known behavioral economist out there, this book collects Ariely’s prolific dishonest research in one place and reminds us that we are not as ethical as we think we are.
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The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making
By Scott Plous | Not as well known as some other important books on judgment and decision making, but if you’re looking for a primer on all the processes that lead to unethical behavior, this is a great start full of real research.
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Fully Compliant: Compliance Training to Change Behavior
By Travis Waugh | Training is a major part of the real world of compliance, and this book gets it right by focusing on levers of human behavior―context, habits, and motivation―explaining how they can be used to create holistic training programs that are more than “check the box.”
Nudge: The Final Edition
By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Susnstein
This one started a behavioral science revolution, and for good reason. While not explicitly about behavioral compliance, it provides the blueprint for behavioral ethics nudges, one of the most exciting tools for driving positive culture in an organization. Written by a Nobel Laureate and one of the most influential law professors alive. This updated version also addresses sludge, the opposite of prosocial nudges.
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Why Most Compliance Training Fails and How to Fix It
By Broadcat | You’ve got to get this one through the website of Broadcat, a compliance design firm, but it’s one of the best practical compliance books out there. It explains in simple terms why behavior is what matters in compliance and how to change behavior in cost-effective ways.
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The Law of Good People: Challenging States' Ability to Regulate Human Behavior
By Yuval Feldman | When you’re ready to go down the research rabbit hole and really understand how behavioral ethics, behavioral economics, and law and regulation all fit together, there is no researcher better than Feldman. This book blows up the notion of regulation aimed at “bad people” and gets the focus where it needs to be--understanding how unethical behavior really happens and how to address it through rigorous analysis.
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The Cambridge Handbook of Compliance
By Benjamin van Rooij and D. Daniel Sokol | A comprehensive overview of compliance from leading academics and practitioners. Something for everyone, including those interested in behavioral ethics and compliance.
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Behavioral Business Ethics: Shaping an Emerging Field
By David De Cremer and Ann E. Tenbrunsel | Academic in nature, but one of the first major works that defined the field of behavioral ethics, and that continues to shape it today.
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Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
By Dan Ariely | One of the first behavioral economics blockbusters. The whole book is good, but pay special attention to Chapter 11 and its exploration of dishonesty.
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Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do About It
By Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel | This book probably did more to advance the field of behavioral ethics than anything else by bringing the concept of bounded ethicality into managers’ lexicon. The notion of ethical blind spots is now well-accepted and lays the foundation for deeper analysis.
The Art of Thinking Clearly
By Rolf Dobelli
While I supremely dislike the “behavioral bias shotgun” approach (the application of multiple biases with little discussion of how they might interact), sometimes you just need a comprehensive list of what’s out there. Dobelli offers that with wit and clarity, but also with helpful cross references.
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Conduct Risk Management: Using a Behavioural Approach to Protect Your Board and Financial Services Business
By Roger Miles | Unethical behavior creates conduct risk in organizations. This book explains how that happens and offers ways to mitigate it. Really good on how “lawful but awful” conduct can create spiraling regulatory risk.
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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
By Robert B. Cialdini | Cialdini is the preeminent expert in the fields of influence and persuasion and has been called “the world's most practical social psychologist” by Nobel Prize winners. The chapters on social proof and authority are foundational to understanding how others influence our ethical behavior.
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How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions
By Damon Centola | Ethical (or unethical) behavior in an organization is a product of many factors, but chief among them is how others behave. Network research explains the mechanics of how this happens and what leads to complex behavioral contagions.