100 Books to Become a Behavioral Designer — Part 2
Your Ultimate Reading Guide to Designing Behavior
Welcome to this second part of my series covering the 100 best books to help you learn about Behavioral Design.
The books included here are a mix of those who have helped me create a successful behavioral design career combined with books personally nominated by the likes of Richard Thaler, Dan Ariely, Tali Sharot, Nir Eyal, Robert Cialdini, and Angela Duckworth, to name a few.
With the first part covering the fundamentals, this part focuses on the behavioral design tools needed for creating behavior change for good.
Did you miss the first part? Here is the link below:
If you prefer a list of all 100 books in a PDF, then you can download it here 📚 via joining the Habit Weekly newsletter.
Level 2. Assembling your behavior change tools
You have by this point, hopefully, established a steady foundation of understanding the main theories behind how we make decisions and why we behave as we do. Next, it is time to begin understanding what tools are available when working with behavior change. You will learn about nudging, building habits, principles of persuasion, the right ways to use carrots and sticks + much more. Happy reading!
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Atomic Habits aims to provide practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
While changing habits seems to be the holy grail when it comes to behavior change, there are surprisingly few good books that cover the topic. Atomic Habits is one of them and is an interesting read for behavior change novice and experts alike. This book covers the many facets of habit formation and is packed with useful strategies for how we can promote long-term behavior change in our lives and others.
Category: Psychology, Habit Formation
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
What makes things popular? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?
Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. In Contagious, Berger reveals the science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission and reveals the six basic principles that drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
This book will help you better understand the psychology behind what people share with each other and how to ensure that the right message gets across at the right time and to the right people. To create change on a large scale we need to understand how to achieve traction with our idea or message.
Category: Social Psychology, Sociology
Don’t Shoot the Dog! — The New Art of Teaching and Training
THE BOOK IN SHORT
A behavioral scientist and dynamic animal trainer, Karen Pryor is an influential proponent of the principles and practical uses of positive reinforcement in teaching new behaviors. Here are the secrets of changing behavior in pets, kids — even yourself — without yelling, threats, force, punishment, guilt trips…or shooting the dog. Pryor’s clear and entertaining explanation of behavioral training methods made Don’t Shoot the Dog! a bestselling classic. Now, this revised edition presents more of her insights into animal — and human — behavior.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
You might be asking, why the heck is a book by an animal trainer on the list? Well, like it or not, you and me ain’t nothin’ but mammals… The behavior change techniques that work on dogs and orcas, will more often than not also work on us. This book is a very entertaining read and is one of the few books that do an excellent job of covering various techniques of punishment and rewards in behavior change.
Category: Behavioral Psychology
Friction: The Untapped Force That Can Be Your Most Powerful Advantage
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
In today’s high-speed, customer-empowered world, the levels of swiftness and efficiency of customer journeys will determine ultimate success or failure. In this guide, Roger Dooley helps you spot the inevitable points of friction in your organization and products, and he provides the tools and insight you need to eliminate them. By truly understanding the impact friction can have, you’ll be able to establish positive habits and eliminate negative ones. Combining scientific research with real-life examples of organizations who have conquered friction, Dooley teaches you how to identify roadblocks, alter them for the benefit of both business and customer, and create positive, lasting change.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
Friction hits home a crucial message: we can come a very long way in creating behavior changes just by making it easy to do the desired behavior. The path of least resistance is strong, and too often, we focus on making things more fun and enjoyable (increasing motivation) when we really should just focus on making things ridiculously easy. That said, making things easy can be very hard. I include this book as it offers plenty of great case studies and insights on how we can reduce friction in our user/customer experiences.
Category: Behavior Change, Organizational Change
Hacking Human Nature for Good
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Hacking Human Nature for Good is a practical guide to changing human behavior. Based on 10 easy workbooks, you will be introduced to important behavioral economics principles that can be applied in all areas of behavior change. Each workbook includes practical exercises you can do by yourself or with your team.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
This is an excellent collection of scientifically backed and practically proven behavioral economics principles that can be used when designing for behavior change. I recommend considering checking out the complete course that this book is used for and much more at Irrational Labs website.
Category: Behavioral Economics, Behavioral Science
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes” — and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion and his thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You’ll learn the six universal principles of persuasion, how to use them to become a skilled persuader — and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
Influence is a must-read for any behavior change enthusiast — it’s captivating from the first page and delivers decades of research in a fun and easily digestible format. The six principles of persuasion that the book introduces are truly the cornerstones of what influences people to take action. If you understand and get these principles right, then you’ve already come a very long way.
Category: Psychology
Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Wendy Wood draws on three decades of original research to explain the fascinating science of how we form habits and offers the key to unlocking our habitual mind to make the changes we seek. A potent mix of neuroscience, case studies, and experiments conducted in her lab, Good Habits, Bad Habits is a comprehensive, accessible, and above all deeply practical book that will change the way you think about almost every aspect of your life. By explaining how our brains are wired to respond to rewards, receive cues from our surroundings, and shut down when faced with too much friction, Wood skillfully dissects habit formation, demonstrating how we can take advantage of this knowledge to form better habits.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
This is a landmark book on how we form habits, and what we can do with this knowledge to create positive change. Instead of covering a laundry list of “hacks,” the book manages to transcend the key principles behind habit formation in a wonderful way. I can happily say that you won’t regret pre-ordering this one! The book will be available from October 1, 2019.
Category: Behavioral Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Habit Formation
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Paperback | Audiobook | Kindle
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Every day we make choices — about what to buy or eat, about financial investments or our children’s health and education, even about the causes we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nudge is about how we make these choices and how we can make better ones. Using dozens of eye-opening examples and drawing on decades of behavioral science research, Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein show that no choice is ever neutrally presented to us and that we are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. But by knowing how people think, we can use sensible “choice architecture” to nudge people toward the best decisions for ourselves, our families, and our society, without restricting our freedom of choice.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
Nudge was an instant classic and is still a must-read. The book provides many valuable lessons; how changes in our environment impact our choices, what it means to help someone make “better” decisions and effective behavior change techniques that don’t require laws or financial incentives. Say no more, if you know what I mean? Time to read this one — Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Category: Behavioral Economics
Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard
THE BOOK IN SHORT
Why is change so difficult and frightening? How do you create change when you have few resources and no title or authority to back you up? In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath address one of the most significant challenges of our personal and professional lives — how to change things when change is hard. You will learn an important concept for thinking about change, and the book is filled with engaging and entertaining stories of how companies and individuals have brought about and sustained significant change. An indispensable guide to making change happen, it is sure to become a classic.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
This one is a thoroughly delightful read, mixing useful strategies on how to create behavior change with real-life examples and stories that make the lessons stick. This is a great book to start with if you are new to the field or just want to learn some general strategies for how to begin changing human behavior.
Category: Psychology
The Smarter Screen: Surprising Ways to Influence and Improve Online Behavior
THE BOOK IN SHORT
A leading behavioral economist reveals the tools that will improve our decision making on screens. In The Smarter Screen, behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi reveals a tool kit of interventions for the digital age. Using engaging reader exercises and provocative case studies, Benartzi shows how digital designs can influence our decision making on screens in all sorts of surprising ways. Drawing on the latest research on digital nudging, Benartzi reveals how we can create an online world that helps us think better, not worse.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT
While we are deep in the digital age, there are still only a few books adapted for the challenges we face when trying to change behaviors through screens. The Smarter Screen is one of the few exceptions and a wonderful book that helps us understand how we can begin applying lessons from behavioral economics to developing better digital products and services.
Category: Behavioral Economics
Please clap 👏👏 if you find this list helpful. Thanks!That’s it (but there’s more)
This is a wrap for part 2, but don’t worry; there are more parts are available below. While you revel in this behavioral-book-overload, don’t forget to start reading. So feel free to relax, find a place to comfortably lean back, and then start reading one of the great books introduced above.
- Level 1. Building a foundation
- Level 2. Assembling your behavior change tools
- Level 3. Learning to design for behavior change
- Level 4. Achieving behavioral design mastery
If you prefer a list of all 100 books in a PDF, then you can download it here 📚 via joining the Habit Weekly newsletter.
Samuel Salzer is a behavioral designer, author & keynote speaker helping value-driven organizations around the world to create habit-forming products and services using insights from behavioral economics and applied behavioral science.
For questions or queries, get in touch here.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Credit to everyone who helped make this, and future parts in this guide possible through your book recommendations and endorsements. It is humbling to have so many great people in our wide-spread community be so eager to help out and contribute.
Thank you to everyone listed below, I greatly appreciate your contributions.
Dan Ariely | Jonah Berger | Charlotte Blank | David Buss | Yu-kai Chou | Robert Cialdini | Wendy De La Rosa | Angela Duckworth | Nir Eyal | Zac Fitz-Walter | BJ Fogg | Evelyn Gosnell| Adam Grant | Dan Heath | Aline Holzwarth | Tim Houlihan | Rob Haisfield | Michael Hallsworth |Scott Barry Kaufman | Zarak Khan | Steve Martin | Riitta Mettomäki | Katherine Milkman |Kurt Nelson | Ingrid Melvær Paulin | Dan Pink | Steven Pinker | Robert Sapolsky | Tali Sharot | Koen Smets | Dilip Soman | Seth Stephens-Davidowitz | Richard Thaler | Matt Wallaert | Susan Weinchenck | Stephen Wendel
Names listed alphabetically. For simplicity, I avoided titles (you can assume everyone has a PhD.)
Credit to Goodreads — Most of “The book in short” sections are adapted synopsis from Goodreads.
No affiliate links have been used in this article.
