Title:
Predictably irrational : the hidden forces that shape our decisions
Author:
Ariely, Dan.
ISBN:
9780007256532
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
London : Harper, 2009.
Physical Description:
xxii, 280 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
General Note:
Originally published: 2008.
Contents:
Introduction : How an injury led me to irrationality and to the research described here -- Truth about relativity : why everything is relative, even when it shouldn't be -- Fallacy of supply and demand : why the price of pearls, and everything else, is up in the air -- Cost of zero cost : why we often pay too much when we pay nothing -- Cost of social norms : why we are happy to do things, but not when we are paid to do them -- Influence of arousal : why hot is much hotter than we realize -- Problem of procrastination and self-control : why we can't make ourselves do what we want to do -- High price of ownership : why we overvalue what we have -- Keeping doors open : why options distract us from our main objective -- Effect of expectations : why the mind gets what it expects -- Power of price : why a 50-cent aspirin can do what a penny aspirin can't -- Context of our character, part 1 : why we are dishonest, and what we can do about it -- Context of our character, part 2 : why dealing with cash makes us more honest -- Beer and free lunches : what is behavioral economics, and where are the free lunches? -- Bonus material added for the revised and expanded edition : reflections and anecdotes about some of the chapters -- Thoughts about the subprime mortgage crisis and its consequences.
Abstract:
Cuts to the heart of our strange behaviour, demonstrating how irrationality often supplants rational thought and that the reason for this is embedded in the very structure of our minds.