"Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day," writes MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely in Predictably Irrational -- The Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions , "but we make the same types of mistakes.....We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable -- making us predictably irrational."
If you read and enjoyed The Long Tail or Freakonomics, this entertaining and insightful book may be for you. Ariely examines such head-scratchers as: Why our neighbor's home renovation makes us so unhappy? Why recalling the Ten Commandments reduces our tendency to lie? When dining out, why are we likely to forgo ordering a dish that we really want if somebody at our table orders it first? Why women at Mardi Gras are willing to show their breasts just to get some worthless beads?
Each chapter of Ariely's book examines such forces as emotions, relativity and social norms that influence human behavior and shows the power each has over our actions. But his book is prescriptive as well: From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, he describes how to "break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better decisions."
