What We Value
The Neuroscience of Choice and Change
8 April 2025
Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, Singapore and Malaysia, but excluding the British Commonwealth.
Description
A neuroscientist reveals the hidden calculations that shape our daily decisions—and how to make more fulfilling, impactful choices in our work, relationships, and lives.
With so many competing priorities pulling us in different directions every day—family, friends, work, our health—it can feel difficult to make decisions that are aligned with what we care about most. Especially in the moment, we often default to the immediate demand, the path of least resistance, the worn old habit we wanted to change. In What We Value, pioneering scholar Emily Falk reveals how we can transform our relationship with the daily decisions that define our lives—opening pathways to make more purposeful, fulfilling choices; more successfully change our behavior; and influence others to see differently—by thinking like neuroscientists.
Drawing on her own award-winning research, Falk introduces readers to a new paradigm for understanding why we, and those around us, do what we do. This is the value calculation: the often-subconscious mechanism by which the brain computes our everyday choices. By learning how it works, Falk shows, we can learn to work more strategically with it—whether we want to embrace new activities and behaviors, connect more meaningfully with others, or become more effective leaders in our organizations and communities. With captivating stories of star comedians, journalists, sports legends, and more, Falk demonstrates how we can change what we think just by changing what we think about; get less defensive by connecting with our core values; and seed innovation by seeking out different perspectives.
Whether deciding on something as small as what to eat for lunch or as big as what career to pursue, we can have more agency and flexibility than we might think. What We Value is a groundbreaking guide to finding new possibilities in our choices—and the lives we ultimately make with them.
Reviews
"'Values’ can feel fuzzy, a fit for philosophers and theologians, not science.? But researchers are now exploring how value works in the brain; their fascinating insights make clear that we cannot just understand what drives us, but also shape it.?Emily?Falk?is a world leader in this space, and in this book, she provides a tour of motivation, thinking, and action.? Filled with cutting edge science and riveting?stories, What We Value will help you better understand how you make decisions, and equip you to make them more wisely." — Jamil Zaki, author of Hope for Cynics
"In What We Value, Emily Falk—one of my favorite neuroscientists—explains in beautiful, personal, first-person prose how our brains make choices for us, what we can do to change those choices, and how we can tune our connections to other people. Falk meets ancient questions with modern neuroscience—and in her honest, humble, authoritative voice, engages us in a conversation that may well change the choices we make and, in turn, the people we are." — Angela Duckworth, New York Times best-selling author of Grit
"[A] meticulously researched yet practical exploration into the science behind making decision. … Falk’s organized, analytical approach is refreshingly down to earth. … [What We Value] empowers readers to make more consciously attuned choices." — Shelf Awareness
"An illuminating journey inside the human brain. If you’ve ever wondered what happens in your head when you make decisions and change habits, Emily Falk offers a wealth of insight." — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking
"Rich, riveting, and packed with practical insights drawn from cutting-edge research, What We Value will help you approach choices and change more effectively. A brilliant neuroscientist and masterful storyteller, Falk has produced a captivating must-read for anyone who aspires to learn and grow." — Katy Milkman, best-selling author of How to Change
"[What We Value] bridges the gap between complex neuroscience and everyday experience through compelling anecdotes, along with clear action steps readers can practice at home. In this way, neuroscience becomes less about circuitry and more about clarity—an avenue to make daily decisions a little more deliberate and much more meaningful." — Shannon Sauer-Zavala, American Scientist
"What We Value? offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics of how our brains make decisions. Full of intriguing insights and captivating stories, it’s essential reading for anyone who wants to effect real change in their life, business, or community." — Jonah Berger, Wharton professor and best-selling author of Contagious and The Catalyst
"Emily Falk has given us an intellectually penetrating and beautifully written account of how what we value at any one moment influences our choices, which influence the choices of those around us, which redound to influence us in turn. Even better, she specifies practices we can employ to affect the brain processes responsible for these influences. It is the best blending I have seen of important behavioral and neuroscience evidence." — Robert Cialdini, New York Times best-selling author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
"Falk introduces readers to the brain systems that calculate our priorities in the moment and the strategies for weighting those decisions toward what matters most to each person. In the process, she offers a compassionate framework for recognizing how we make choices and why change can be so challenging." — Daisy Yuhas, Scientific American
"[A]n informative examination of the mechanics and real-life implications of ‘dialing value system activity up and down.’ … Although many of Falk’s practical recommendations for training the brain will be familiar to some readers, they may well provide the nudge to implement them." — Psychology Today
Standalone Ebook
9781324037101
COMING SOON