Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions is a 2008 book by Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought. Ariely explains, "My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick. I hope to lead you there by presenting a wide range of scientific experiments, findings, and anecdotes that are in many cases quite amusing. Once you see how systematic certain mistakes are--how we repeat them again and again--I think you will begin to learn how to avoid some of them".
Contents
INTRODUCTION:
How an Injury Led Me to Irrationality and to the Research Described Here
CHAPTER I
The Truth about Relativity:
Why Everything Is Relative—Even When It Shouldn't Be
CHAPTER 2
The Fallacy of Supply and Demand:
Why the Price of Pearls—and Everything Else—Is Up in the Air
CHAPTER 3
The Cost of Zero Cost:
Why We Often Pay Too Much When We Pay Nothing
CHAPTER 4
The Cost of Social Norms:
Why We Are Happy to Do Things, but Not When We Are Paid to Do Them
CHAPTER 5
The Influence of Arousal:
Why Hot Is Much Hotter Than We Realize
CHAPTER 6
The Problem of Procrastination and Self-Control:
Why We Can't Make Ourselves Do What We Want to Do
CHAPTER 7
The High Price of Ownership:
Why We Overvalue What We Have
CHAPTER 8
Keeping Doors Open:
Why Options Distract Us from Our Main Objective
CHAPTER 9
The Effect of Expectations:
Why the Mind Gets What It Expects
CHAPTER IO
The Power of Price:
Why a SO-Cent Aspirin Can Do What a Penny Aspirin Can't
CHAPTER I I
The Context of Our Character, Part I:
Why We Are Dishonest, and What We Can Do about It
CHAPTER 12
The Context of Our Character, Part II:
Why Dealing with Cash Makes Us More Honest
CHAPTER 13
Beer and Free Lunches:
What Is Behavioral Economics, and Where Are the Free Lunches?
Thanks
List of Collaborators
Notes
Bibliography and Additional Readings
Index
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