Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

Pherson Associates has partnered with Richards J. Heuer to reprint his seminal work on intelligence analysis.

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis has been required reading for intelligence officers studying the art and science of intelligence analysis for decades. Heuer discusses how fundamental limitations in human mental processes can prompt people to jump to conclusions and employ other simplifying strategies that lead to predictably faulty judgments known as cognitive biases. These analytic mindsets can not be avoided but they can be overcome through the application of more structured and rigorous analytic techniques including the Analysis of Competing Hypotheses.

Richards J. Heuer, Jr. worked for the CIA for nearly 45 years - first as a staff officer from 1951 until his retirement in 1979 and then as a contractor on a variety of projects until 1995. He began his career in the Directorate of Operations and later transferred to the Directorate of Intelligence, where he headed the unit working on analytic methods in the Office of Political Analysis. He is now a consultant for the Department of Defense Personnel Security Research Center in Monterey, California.

Mr. Heuer was awarded the Agency Seal Medallion in 1987 for developing and teaching an innovative methodology for addressing complex and challenging problems facing the Intelligence Community. He was recognized in 1988 for his "outstanding contribution to the literature of intelligence," and again in 1996 for "superior accomplishment." In addition to his work on the psychology of intelligence analysis, Mr. Heuer is a published author on counterintelligence, deception, analytical methodology, and personnel security issues.

Many of the chapters in this book were originally written for the Directorate of Intelligence in the 1980s. They were edited and assembled, along with additional material that Mr. Heuer prepared specifically for this book, under the auspices of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.