So I just finished reading this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Mistakes-Were-Made-But-Not/dp/0151010986/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264206037&sr=1-2

I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone and everyone. 

It shows why we wonder "Can that guy really be that dumb?!?!" while we ignore it when we show the same symptoms and other people ask that of us.

It give vital tools to help become more rational. The paradox of course, is the more rational we think we are, the MORE likely were are to justify irrational decisions. "I'm a rational person, I would never form a belief based on faulty evidence. So my belief is formed on solid evidence and any counter evidence is wrong and misguided. I see it because I'm rational and they're not." Of course it doesn't matter how valid the opposing evidence is.

It citied loads of studies, such as the one in which we "shut out" opposing views and forget any valid evidence for them and forget faulty arguments for our view.

http://synapse.princeton.edu/~sam/lord_ross_lepper79_JPSP_biased-assimilation-and-attitude-polarization.pdf

It showed some pretty extreme examples, such as the person who formed false memories about him survivng the holocaust concentration camps.

 The two authors even offered anecdotes of when it happened to them and they wasted money, or formed false memories. [One story is how a professor of psychology studing autobiographical memories and how we distort them held on to a distorted memory of his own based on his bias!]

I also liked it because it illustrates my gripes with the "atheist movement.."

Once we get in the habit of labelling us [atheists] against them [theists] we start spiralling into the never regions of irrationality. [Well of course no atheist/theist would ever do that! Oh I know not ALL Christians do that, but the exception doesn't disprove the rule does it??!]

It's a good tool on how to actually get people to be more rational [if we can even do it]