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Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences
This book is an expanded and revised edition of the author's critically acclaimed volume Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. In twenty-six succinct chapters, Jon Elster provides an account of the nature of explanation in the social sciences. He offers an overview of key explanatory mechanisms in the social sciences, relying on hundreds of examples and drawing on a large variety of sources-psychology, behavioral economics, biology, political science, historical writings, philosophy and fiction. Written in accessible and jargon-free language, Elster aims at accuracy and clarity while eschewing formal models.
484 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
65 people are currently reading
1,932 people want to read
About the author
Jon Elster
98books81followersJon Elster ، born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian social and political theorist who has authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory. He is also a notable proponent of analytical Marxism, and a critic of neoclassical economics and public choice theory, largely on behavioral and psychological grounds.
In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.
In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 26, 2015
This is a place to start (and to always come back) for every social scientist. Lots of biology, psychology, economics, rational choice and behavioral science (and no post-structuralism, cultural theory and deconstruction at all), which makes this book a really useful guide to the concepts and mechanisms in explaining social phenomena in a scientific and sensible way.
February 13, 2021
It’s not your typical introductory book to y or x topic. Explaining social behavior delivers what it promise: an introduction of how to explain social behavior.
And the honest remarks of the author are very insightful: Jon accepts when he doesn’t know, not before show all the options and explanations available.
The process to explain paradoxes of human behavior it’s not easy, Jon take a chance and give you some tentative answers.
I appreciate the great erudition (Montaigne, Tocqueville, Bentham, Cicero, Marx, Veyne, etc.) of Jon Elster, and he totally knows how to use the classics to make his points (is not a fake erudition for the sake of being perceived as a smart guy)
You need to re read this book, it’s not a one sitting book, a lot to think and a lot to learn.
And the honest remarks of the author are very insightful: Jon accepts when he doesn’t know, not before show all the options and explanations available.
The process to explain paradoxes of human behavior it’s not easy, Jon take a chance and give you some tentative answers.
I appreciate the great erudition (Montaigne, Tocqueville, Bentham, Cicero, Marx, Veyne, etc.) of Jon Elster, and he totally knows how to use the classics to make his points (is not a fake erudition for the sake of being perceived as a smart guy)
You need to re read this book, it’s not a one sitting book, a lot to think and a lot to learn.
June 9, 2016
Yep, easily the most thorough and attention-demanding book I’ve read this year on any subject and certainly the best book bar none on human behavior. Elster has the guts to systematically show that we know more about human behavior than is generally believed but not nearly as much as most professionals in the field claim. The book is an incredible example of applying clear rigorous thinking to show the limits of how far that rigor can take you, and without resorting to throwing up your hands in the end to claim ignorance. Along the way the quotes from the likes of Tocqueville, Montaigne and Proust add an a intellectual aesthetic like no other.
Notes to self:
- Explanation vs prediction. Need mechanism for explanation. Beware of functionalism.
- Intelligibility vs rationality. Adhering to the classically rational behavior tends to make it unintelligible. Good novels sport intelligible characters, mediocre novels stick with rational ones.
- “desire-belief-information action� framework for rational behavior can somewhat reasonably withstand the influence of emotions and biases when it comes to explaining individual behavior, but is in practice pretty hopeless for explaining group behavior (all sorts of problems with aggregating collective preferences, beliefs and expectations)
- Freud and culture of suspicion, too tempting to obscure everything by delegating into sub consciousness.
- Hard and soft obscurantism. Hard is insufficient beyond basic boring cases, soft is much more entertaining but is absolutely hopeless when it comes to providing insight into human nature. Thank you, Foucault.
- It takes Elster 2 pages to calmly explain mechanics of pluralistic ignorance, while Zizek spends a documentary and a couple of books manically vocalizing his theory of “structure of belief� which amounts to the same thing.
Notes to self:
- Explanation vs prediction. Need mechanism for explanation. Beware of functionalism.
- Intelligibility vs rationality. Adhering to the classically rational behavior tends to make it unintelligible. Good novels sport intelligible characters, mediocre novels stick with rational ones.
- “desire-belief-information action� framework for rational behavior can somewhat reasonably withstand the influence of emotions and biases when it comes to explaining individual behavior, but is in practice pretty hopeless for explaining group behavior (all sorts of problems with aggregating collective preferences, beliefs and expectations)
- Freud and culture of suspicion, too tempting to obscure everything by delegating into sub consciousness.
- Hard and soft obscurantism. Hard is insufficient beyond basic boring cases, soft is much more entertaining but is absolutely hopeless when it comes to providing insight into human nature. Thank you, Foucault.
- It takes Elster 2 pages to calmly explain mechanics of pluralistic ignorance, while Zizek spends a documentary and a couple of books manically vocalizing his theory of “structure of belief� which amounts to the same thing.
October 21, 2020
Magnifique bouquin a ranger au même niveau que "Thinking Fast and Slow" de Daniel Kahneman et "Behave" de Robert Sapolsky. Trois ouvrages magistraux qui exploitent trois perspectives différentes, certes, mais qui 1) sont transversales, 2) ancrées dans l'état des sciences actuelles, et 3) critiquent de front l'état des sciences humaines et sociales dans academia. En effet, Kahneman est un psychologue qui a gagné le Nobel d'économie pour avoir "découvert" le mécanisme de "loss aversion" (crainte du risque irrationnelle) dans une discipline guidée par la théorie du choix rationnel et ses corollaires, Sapolsky est un neurobiologiste traitant de sociologie et psychologie évolutive, et Jon Elster un philosophe utilisant Jane Austen, Proust, Pascal, Tocqueville et Montaigne avec une grosse dose de théorie des jeux pour développer non pas un système théorique (les nietzschéen nous nous méfions de tous les systèmes de pensée), mais une description de l'humain et de la société qui révèle une suite stochastique de traits qui dépendent de beaucoup d'autres variables pour être généralisés en dehors des contextes étudiés.
August 11, 2018
Fundamental red for anyone who wants to engage in explaining human behavior. Gives a nice direction about how to think straight about it.
February 17, 2020
Ignorance is bliss. Elster knows how to twist words to make him sound deeper than he is. And on this magic trick is based his entire life. Somehow that qualifies him to any field of knowledge, just like any other prophet coming out from the desert after fasting a few weeks.
May 12, 2010
This is a dense book and I made it through the whole thing, but I am afraid I don't remember much. I do not feel changed by the book, nor do I feel any closer to understanding social behavior. However, I must give credit to any author who is willing to write a tome with his name on it promising that he will explain it.
July 19, 2020
Thought-provoking, occasionally tendentious, but never boring. The bibliographies are worth a read in themselves. Elster is something -- pellucid and fearless, the kind of thinker I want to be some day.
Want to read
May 19, 2008Recommendations from aaron sw
January 11, 2019
On par with the works on Kahneman when it comes to sheer content on human nature. Really really enjoyed it.
August 7, 2020
It is a very good read, with a lot of nice literature or religious references. My favorite thing I learned was about the Torah saying that sacrificing a specific person for a greater good is only okay if the community isn't the one selecting who that person is. The book is great for its scope, it should be the first thing that is consulted when thinking about various social science topics such as beliefs, motivations, etc. It is sometimes rather short on actually giving a meaningful analysis but what it lacks in depth it makes up in scope.
There are some minor mistakes in the fields I am familiar with, for instance, the "law of demand"isn't really a neoclassical concept, so the examples given as counter-examples are not really so. This is because Austrians treat goods as subjective while Neoclassicals treat them as physical. You can only have counterexamples if you treat them as physical.
There are some minor mistakes in the fields I am familiar with, for instance, the "law of demand"isn't really a neoclassical concept, so the examples given as counter-examples are not really so. This is because Austrians treat goods as subjective while Neoclassicals treat them as physical. You can only have counterexamples if you treat them as physical.
Read
July 21, 2020So I read the un-expanded version. Mea culpa.
So this is an attempt to provide a codified language for sociology, with a heavy emphasis on concepts taken from game theory and psychology. One wonders why, in this era in which Kahneman, Thaler, et al are praised for similar approaches, Jon Elster isn't more widely read. I'm still a bit iffy on some of his proclamations, but this was an interesting attempt at a sort of primer.
So this is an attempt to provide a codified language for sociology, with a heavy emphasis on concepts taken from game theory and psychology. One wonders why, in this era in which Kahneman, Thaler, et al are praised for similar approaches, Jon Elster isn't more widely read. I'm still a bit iffy on some of his proclamations, but this was an interesting attempt at a sort of primer.
Want to read
January 12, 2022From Taleb
January 11, 2018
Not being an economist this book was dense for me in many places but my daughter, studying social economics in grad school, encouraged me to complete it. After many starts and stops I'm glad I persevered. I might even re-read parts of it and just skip over the graphs and charts!
August 6, 2015
An intriguing, difficult, exhausting and significant book. Probably beyond my puny capabilities to review. But I'll give it a shot, anyway.
Explaining Social Behaviour is a very erudite, very intelligent scholar's attempt to translate the mind boggling complexities of social interaction, myriad of behaviours and infinite motivations into a logical structure with mathematical underpinnings, a sort of sociological calculus.
It encompasses an astonishing, hypothetical wonderverse of assumptions that are brought to their logical conclusion in one stupendous effort of coordinated intention.
We are all aware of the criticism the 'hard' scientists level against social scientists (that sociology is not a real science), the author courageously attempts to address this contemptuous point of view.
One tends to approach the foundational concept of rational behaviourism like a Jesuit monk, who accepting as an act of faith the existence of God, goes on to propose the number of angels that are able to dance on the head of a pin.
Explaining Social Behaviour is a very erudite, very intelligent scholar's attempt to translate the mind boggling complexities of social interaction, myriad of behaviours and infinite motivations into a logical structure with mathematical underpinnings, a sort of sociological calculus.
It encompasses an astonishing, hypothetical wonderverse of assumptions that are brought to their logical conclusion in one stupendous effort of coordinated intention.
We are all aware of the criticism the 'hard' scientists level against social scientists (that sociology is not a real science), the author courageously attempts to address this contemptuous point of view.
One tends to approach the foundational concept of rational behaviourism like a Jesuit monk, who accepting as an act of faith the existence of God, goes on to propose the number of angels that are able to dance on the head of a pin.
Shelved as 'incomplete'
May 17, 2016This mostly served to prime me for in-class discussions and lend some context to the professor's lectures, or suggest examples. So I didn't really engage with it. Part of me feels like it's mostly just a chance for Elster to show off his erudition: "Look at all the pertinent historical trivia I know!"
June 18, 2015
هو دراسة أكتر منه كتاب محدد موضوعه.
الكتاب كبير جداً أكتر من 700 صفحة فالحكم عليه بشكل عام هيقلل من قيمة فصول ويعلي قيمة فصول, فيه فصول كانت بسيطة جداً وممتازة والكاتب قدر يوصل المعلومة والفكرة, وفصول تانية مستفدتش منها أي حاجه.
طلعت منه بأفكار كتير محتاجه تفصيل أكتر عشان ابدأ اطبقها في أي تواصل مع المجتمع سواء توعية أو حملات إنتخابية في المستقبل.
الكتاب كبير جداً أكتر من 700 صفحة فالحكم عليه بشكل عام هيقلل من قيمة فصول ويعلي قيمة فصول, فيه فصول كانت بسيطة جداً وممتازة والكاتب قدر يوصل المعلومة والفكرة, وفصول تانية مستفدتش منها أي حاجه.
طلعت منه بأفكار كتير محتاجه تفصيل أكتر عشان ابدأ اطبقها في أي تواصل مع المجتمع سواء توعية أو حملات إنتخابية في المستقبل.
March 3, 2016
i'm finally done with this one. elster has a gift for explaining, but still much of it flew above my head. i wish i were a bit smarter and a bit less lazy.
September 11, 2016
Is social science possible? An underlying premise here is that near the entirety of social science can be found in the annals of the less prestigious 'subject' of history.
A jewel.
A jewel.
September 16, 2016
كتاب الدارسين في علم الاجتماع و ليس للهواة
February 11, 2021
Every (aspiring) social scientist should read this.
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