Perception and Misperception in International Politics

This study of perception and misperception in foreign policy was a landmark in application of cognitive psychology to political decision making. The New York Times called it, in an article published nearly ten years after book's appearance, the seminal statement of principles underlying political psychology. The perspective established by Jervis remains an important counterpoint to structural explanations of international politics, and from it has developed a large literature on psychology of leaders and problems of decision making under conditions of incomplete information, stress, and cognitive bias. Jervis begins by describing process of perception (for example, how decision makers learn from history) and…