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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 (30) from £8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 1072
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0007256523
EAN: 9780007256525
ASIN: 0007256523
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 51-55 of 55 | | « PREV 1 ... | | |
 An enjoyable, and important, read. February 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
On page 58 of Predictably Irrational the author, a professor of Behavioural Economics, notes that when Amazon introduced free postage for orders above a certain figure (15 in the U.K., though the book is written in the U.S. context) many purchasers began ordering a second book, which they may not have particularly wanted, in order to bring the total cost above this level. (This reviewer has certainly done that.) Yet in France this increase in sales did not occur. Why? Because instead of being set at nothing, postage was set at the near-identical level of 1 franc!
This is just one of the numerous examples given to illustrate the author's case that our behaviour, particularly but not exclusively in our personal financial affairs, is largely irrational. The mere sight of the word FREE! stimulates our appetites such that we are happy to make ourselves worse off overall so as to think we are getting something as a gift. Similarly, if we are offered a transaction which clearly compares favourably with a close alternative, we instinctively regard it as a real bargain. Or we assume that for certain types of product (jewellery, wine, coffee) a higher-priced version must automatically be better and more worth having.
These and many other examples are backed up by the results of surveys and experiments, described in detail, on willing subjects, usually students. It is concluded that the theory of Market Forces simply doesn't work in explaining our behaviour, and that firms in the business of selling us things make good use of this fact. Other subjects dealt with include placebos in medicine (hugely effective), our choices in restaurants and pubs (we like to be seen as different from our companions), and sexual behaviour (we should avoid those situations where our principles may suddenly break down).
There is certainly much that is thought-provoking, even groundbreaking, in this book, and both consumers and public authorities would do well to give serious thought to its wide-ranging conclusions. I do wonder at the fact that every single experiment described produces the result which suits Professor Ariely's case, but perhaps I am misjudging him in querying whether the results of any of his experiments were suppressed.
Overall, this is an excellent and enjoyable read, and one which should ideally lead us to ignore all those "20% off" and "buy one get one free" offers!
Sums up complex human nature in a nutshell..! February 27, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
When we think of human nature we would always think of it as a complex intertwining web. But this book looks at behavioral economics. Ariely argues that a deeper understanding of the so-called ignored or misunderstood forces (emotions, relativity and social norms) that influence our economic behavior brings a variety of opportunities for reexamining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational policy.
In some respect as human beings we don't look at our thoughts or actions and instinctively rely on second nature.
Intelligent, engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable, "The Predictably Irrational" explains why we often make bad decisions--and what can be done about it.
I can see myself in many of the situations & am thoroughly amused by Ariely's insight into human falibility
Apparantly most of us will exaggerate our business expenses (oops!) February 26, 2008
This is a fascinating book about why we make the decisions we do (and why we think we're in control of our decision making but in reality there are far more forces at work that we realise).
The book is broken down into chapters including topics such as why we feel it's ok to take stationary etc from work, why we pay more for more expensive pain killers even thought the ingredients of the cheaper version are the same and why we would pay far less for something that we really want than we would sell it for if we won it for free.
The author, Dan Ariely, a Professor of Behavioural Economics, has carried out many experiments (mainly by the students at his college it seemed) which I found really interesting and with some unexpected results. The reslults, however, were often a little vague but I suspect that this isn't meant to be an Economics text book and therefore the average joe reading this won't be interested in graphs and decimal points all the way through, rather prefering to understand his findings in a non-economist-friendly way.
I was also pleased to see that our very own Amazon gets a mention. Apparantly, alot of us will buy and extra book/DVD etc that we didn't plan on (or even necessarily want) purely to get the free shipping (guilty as charged!). This chapter was on why we will take just about anything if it's free and in turn lead me to think about why I had this book in the first place - the price on the inside cover was 16.99 and is something that, although I may have been mildly curious about, is certainly not something I would have ever considered buying at that price (or even less if I'm completely honest). As it happens, it was on Amazon's latest Vine list for free, so did I take it? Absobloominlutely!
I really enjoyed this book, it takes no time at all to read and can be dipped in and out of, but more importantly it relates well to our own lives and there were plenty of "I do that" moments.
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in human behaviour. It's certainly accessable and requires no prior knowledge.
Don't be put off by the words "business" or "economics" February 24, 2008
35 out of 35 found this review helpful
This is really a popular psychology book about how we behave and how, as the subtitle puts it, hidden forces influence our everyday decisions. So don't be put off by quotes from businessmen and economists in the blurb. I almost was. But I'm glad I wasn't. This is a neat little book with plenty of nuggets of information and insights that you can put to use immediately. You learn things about yourself and other people that seem so obvious you wonder how you'd never noticed them before and you learn why hunches you've had in the past really are right and why. Each chapter of this book consists of some simple experiments that are designed to probe a different aspect of our decision-making process e.g. how our expectations affect how we experience things and why too many choices can be unhelpful, to mention just two. The experiments are simple and elegant.
They usually consist of asking two or more differently informed groups of students questions about something. Actually, sometimes the author is a bit vague about the exact experimental conditions, how bias was eliminated from the experiment (particularly with respect to how questions were framed [what language was used] and how the participants were chosen [a few samples were decidedly small]) and how the many variables were isolated and controlled. So in that sense we must take Ariely's word for it. Also, he often vaguely summarises the results of these experiments with words such as "more than" and "most" instead of giving figures. If he were giving a lecture I would have asked him to clarify quite a few points. But all in all I think that this was an interesting book albeit a short one. It is a slim volume and the typeface is quite large. I'm a slow reader and I read it comfortably over two days.
Everyone's irrational. February 24, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Very good review of growing research into decision making,which it seems is generally irrational. We buy or do things for reasons we are not really aware of and so can be manipulated quite easily. So watch out.
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