Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Predictably Irrational is a fascinating survey of how and why human behavior fails to conform to the predictions of traditional economists. Dan Ariely asks and attempts to answer questions such as "Why don't we save as much money as we should?" "Why don't we eat as well as we should?" etc. We've all heard the somewhat moralistic answer "we succumb too easily to temptation/the desire for instant gratification." Ariely tries to go deeper. He discusses a series of experiments covering a vast array of behaviors. Each experiment seems to have been designed with several objectives: to demonstrate the existence of an irrational behavior; to explain why we behave in such an irrational way; and to explore methods of overcoming our irrationality to help us behave in the way the rational part of us wishes we could. The experiments illustrate a wide variety of apparently irrational behavior resulting from the desire for instant gratification, intense emotions, peer pressure, prior expectations and more. I love that Ariely not only demonstrates the existence of and reason for the behaviors, but also uses the opportunity to talk about how we can use foreknowledge of these tendencies toward irrationality to find solutions that actually work. My one small quibble with the book is that it doesn't always provide as much detail as I'd like...maybe I should go read the academic papers underlying this more accessible layman's survey.


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