Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely
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List Price: ££16.99
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Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780007256525
ISBN: 0007256523
Label: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2008-03-03
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Studio: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Fascinating Book!
Comment: What a wonderful book! It is full of the querky ways in which people think to make choices in their lives. This book has really been an eye-opener, and has given me so many invaluable ideas when setting up my business. You don't want to let this one slip by!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great read that doesn't require an interest in economics
Comment: This book was bought due to a reccomendation and I don't regret it for a second, the book gets right into delivering you interesting curiosities of human behaviour and you may realise about half way through that it is beginning to effect the way you behave because of offers.
If I were to critisize Predictably Irrational for anything it would be that the last quater of the book seemed a little repeptitive to me, however that may be because of how long it took me to read it (busy timetable got in the way), but I must say I found myself bringing the book with me on journeys, which is something I rarely do in these days of audiobooks.
I have just began reading Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong which approaches a similar topic yet requires a little more interest in the physiology of our brains- which is great if you have an interest (I am a Medical Student) but I would say for the average person who is interested in behaviour this is a great buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and genuinely interesting
Comment: Human behaviour is and endlessly fascinating topic, and using scientific social experiments, the author outlines how irrational behaviour can be explained by rational motivations.
Each chapter is dedicated to a particular "irrational behaviour", and the problem is outlined clearly, in a way that is easy to comprehend. The author then typically moves on to describe and explain the set of methods and procedures that will allow him to test his theories and preconceptions before finally revealing the results. Lastly, the author draws conclusions from the data, and offers up suggestions as to why such behaviour was observed.
If you've ever wondered why impulse buyers react to sales and offers the way they do, this book provides invaluable insights, whilst maintaining a light-hearted feel, and is often humorous without dumbing down the matter at hand.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't see that one coming...
Comment: I wanted this book to be so much better than it actually is. I've been waiting for this book (or at least *a* book about the irrational foibles of human behaviour) to be written for years now, and having finally been given one, it's turned out to be a bit disappointing.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it's an interesting book and well worth the read. It contains plenty of inventive experiments into human behaviour, described thorough and entertaining ways, and if that's what you're after, look no further. If you want a series of case studies into demonstrating the irrationality of human behaviour, this is exactly the book you're looking for.
If you're not presently of the belief that human beings are locked in a tragic cycle of making the same errors of judgment time and time again, you might walk away from this book feeling enlightened. If you're already quite comfortable with this notion, this book is just more ammunition for a gun you already own.
It also suffers a little for its written style. It feels more like a collection of blog entries than a cohesive book, and while an effort has been made to group the content into sensibly-categorised chapters, that's exactly what they feel like: collections of content rather than running themes. In spite of this, if you like the subject matter it will probably maintain your interest.
I may be being a little harsh on it, since most of my complaints amount to "this isn't the book I wanted it to be", but I can't help but feel that the book itself isn't the book it wants to be either.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Predictably Anecdotal
Comment: Blame Malcolm Gladwell - but after Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking social psychologists of the type he featured in that book have been coming out of the woodwork to publish in the pop science market in alarming numbers figuring, reasonably, enough that there's a bit of money to be made on the side. I'm guessing royalties from articles in the International Journal of Psychology would pale in comparison.
One of the latest is Dan Ariely, whose unique selling point is a horrific accident he sustained as a student Israel which left him with burns to 70% of his body. His book does what it says on the tin, by way of explaining a number of social experiments that he and his colleagues have run in the last few years, loosely themed around the observation that we don't always act as sensibly as logic would dictate.
Which is fine - as you would expect, some of the examples are eyebrow raising - but it really shouldn't be news and it certainly doesn't require Dan Ariely to tell us that our liberal western societies aren't as rational as we like to think (incontrovertible proof of that, not offered in Ariel's book, being the politicians we elect and the amount of attention and money we collectively devote to cosmetics, fashion, celebrity and professional sport), especially as deeper epistemological examination reveals the idea of "rationality" is incoherent anyway.
But just as some anecdotes are enlightening, the implications of others are not nearly as plain or convincing as Ariel thinks they are, and some of his experiments struck me as being particularly glib, superficial and susceptible to plenty of alternative interpretations.
And what Ariel's book lacks is any further theoretical drive: OK, we re predisposed to behave in silly or odious ways - but what's your point? In what underlying way are our irrational proclivities linked? What conclusions can we draw; what can we learn; what strategies can we adopt to counteract the harmful effects of our fecklessness?
Ariely implies, but doesn't say, that some sort of regulation is required to save us. But given that it was our irrational proclivities by which we arrived at these politicians (and the political institutions through which they organise themselves) I'm not sure he leaves us any better off than when we started.
Olly Buxton
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