Which paper or book from cognitive science do you think everyone should read or know about, and why? I have created a community wiki question to encourage/enable users to share the books or paper from cognitive science that you think is most important for others to read and know about. Please just give one suggestion per answer and please make sure that you explain why it is important that people understand this reading and what it explains.

Note that you can suggest more several pieces of content if you think that they are all equally essential but this is generally discouraged. 



I note that a previous question, which I have voted to reopen, asked for the must know papers of cognitive science and was closed for being too broad. If that policy of closing these sorts of "polls" remains in place then I am happy to remove or modify my question.

However, I would suggest that the question be left open as I have seen similar questions (1, 2) being very well received on other stackexchange forums and attracting considerable interest and engagement.

While some of these question have since been closed, I oppose that policy as I accord with the view from here, that "'must read books' questions are pretty much my favourite part of every stackexchange site – Damon Mar 9 '11 at 17:48"
Ok, I will start. I don't necessarily know if these are definitely the best three books I have read, but they are three of the best. If I think of better ones then I will add them.


Thinking, Fast and Slow
Predictably Irrational
Influence: Science and practice


My interest in cognitive science is about i) understanding my own irrationality and ii) understanding how to change behaviour (e.g., persuasion, influence etc) to help people to have better lives. My three choices reflect this.

As related to this, I think that these books would be valuable for anyone to read as they could help you to better understand how to i)  make better decisions, ii) help other people to make better decisions.