This is an alphabetical version. For a subjective ranked version see: Ranked: Why Do People Think Differently?
The below books explain why people view reality differently. What causes them to think differently. Understanding why people think a certain way can help engage with them.
An Ethical Account
- Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It by Max H. Bazerman, Ann E. Tenbrunsel
Different Backgrounds
- A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell
- How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
- How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
- Inventing the Enemy by Umberto Eco
- Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua D. Greene
- Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir
- Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger by Peter Bevelin
Different Wants
Divergent Thinking
- Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant
- Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J. Dubner
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
- In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business by Charlan Jeanne Nemeth
The Influence of Culture
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
- The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
- Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations by Roger J. Davies
- Race And Culture: A World View by Thomas Sowell
- Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: Tight and Loose Cultures and the Secret Signals that Direct Our Lives by Michele Gelfand
- The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich
Learning Different Ways to Think
- Buddha by Karen Armstrong
- Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Ian Leslie
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine ... for Now by Stanislas Dehaene
- Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
- The Secret Formula of Strategic Thinkers: Winning Steps for Sustained Success by Cory Smith
How It Is Known That People Think Differently
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Brains Infrastructure
- Screwed Up Somehow But Not Stupid: Life With a Learning Disability by Peter Flom
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
