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| Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions | 
 enlarge | Author: Dan Ariely
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £8.49
You Save: £8.50 (50%)
New (29) from £7.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 228
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0007256523
EAN: 9780007256525
ASIN: 0007256523
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
Go with your gut feel June 26, 2008
As a complement to something like Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink' this is a useful reader. It explores more of the mechanics of why we make decisions on instinct and from emotion. In that sense it is fascinating.
The title explains it all! June 25, 2008
Predictably irrational indeed, but eminently readable.
Ever wondered about the whys and wherefores of how we decide things? This explains it (or trys to anyway!). An amusing and certainly not stodgy trip into decision processes, which left me thinking that the author and his amusing style would be an ideal candidate to rewrite Steven Hawking's "Brief history of time" as his explanation and analysis skills are first rate.
Worth a read. Don't ask me why, try reading the book and you might get an idea why I think that way
 Competent but doesn't stand out June 19, 2008
Since the success of Freakonomics almost every living economist must have been pressed into service to write a popular science book. The main problem this book has is that there is a whole category of 'things you didn't know about economics' books now.
The book is in easily digestible chapters, reads easily and is pretty hard to argue with, the author appears to put together experiments to determine what makes us act irrationally (or unlike classical economists' models).
In short sexual arousal, free stuff and an inability to judge free from the local environment. I doubt many people will be surprised by much in this book, as the classical rational being is a bit of a straw man these days.
The author doesn't write as well as Tim Harford, and the book doesn't shock as much as Freakonomics, in marketing terms it lacks a unique selling point. Worth it if you're a fan of these kinds of book.
One for those in the credit crunch! June 18, 2008
Dan Ariely's book should be, by the standards set in other economic literature, a complex academic read that would only appeal to students of the subject. His skill here is to turn what could be a very boring subject into one that any layman will be fascinated by and even shocked by its revelations.
Airely suggests we make bad decisions that hurt us in the long run because we have various internal psychological factors that force our hands, so to speak. Take for example his idea that seeing the word 'Free' when taggged with a product makes us feel we are getting good value when in fact it doesn't in the end. Through various experiments with his students and others he outlines how these factors play in our purchasing decisions again and again. All this is done with a deft, simple (and at times, amusing) use of language that anyone can understand. In this time of the 'credit crunch', perhaps that might not be a bad thing.
Aside from some of the political grandstanding in places (when he talks of government intervention in places), I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It did make me think about how I approach spending in my everyday life and how my decision making process is often affected by my own views on certain things. If a book like this which I wouldn't normally look at has made me do this, then it must be good. Highly recommended!
 Good fun, whilst still informative. May 22, 2008
The title I have given this review pretty much sums up this book by Dan Ariely. The content of this book on behavioural economics is brilliantly detailed. Diagrams illustrate the points laid out in the text and it includes a good list of studies that would be useful for students of psychology or economics alike. The topics covered are very extensive, though maybe some of the titles for chapters do not entirely accurately represent the content within them (Fallacy of supply and demand touches heavily upon various topics, but maybe too little on actual supply and demand).
Whilst being educational and informative, Dan Ariely never fails to add sparks of humour to make his book all the more enjoyable. As an author he is not afraid to make critical comments and judgements based upon (and often totally predjudging) the studies that he undertakes yet these do not get mixed up in the results. If his witty comments get proved totally out of place, he will make further witty comments to counterbalance his argument. It is never a dull read, with some almost laugh out loud, obviously intentional irony that carries this otherwise tedious subject into a much more mainstream audience.
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