What happens when our deepest values shape our decisions - sometimes at a cost? Join the ASA Book Club for a special virtual event with Steven Sloman, author of The Cost of Conviction: How Our Deepest Values Lead Us Astray.
Do you weigh the best outcome, or act on your deepest values about what's right? The Cost of Conviction explores these two approaches to decision making - consequentialism and "sacred" values - and examines how leaning too heavily on sacred values, especially on sociopolitical issues, can fuel oversimplification, anger, and social polarization.
Steven Sloman is a cognitive scientist at Brown University who studies decision making, thinking, and reasoning. His books include Causal Models: How We Think about the World and Its Alternatives (2005), The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone (2017, co-authored with Phil Fernbach), and The Cost of Conviction (2025). He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Cognition and Chair of the Brown University faculty, and created Brown's concentration in Behavioral Decision Sciences. He received Brown's 2025 Presidential Faculty Award and currently serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of Behavioral Science and Policy.
Date: Friday, October 16, 2026
Time: 12–1 p.m. ET
Format: Virtual
Facilitator: Eunice Kim, Microsoft
Register by October 9: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAN__lpjG9RUMjgzREtQN0ZCUEgwTEhTNzlUN0JTWU9BTS4
The meeting link will be shared with registered participants around October 10. Please save the date and block your calendar.
Book giveaway: Register by September 25 for a chance to receive a complimentary advance copy of The Cost of Conviction.
No pre-reading required.
This special event is sponsored by the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section.
Mailing List Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for the mailing list: forms.gle/RJ48D8Q7TCmJQ9ms8
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Patrick Roney
Biostatistician
Georgetown University
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