|  | Author: Dan Ariely
Publisher: Harper
List Price: $27.99
Buy New: $10.75
as of 11/24/2009 03:16 CST details
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Seller: smokymtnbooks
Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 1223
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Roughcut
Edition: Rev Exp
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0061854549
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.83
EAN: 9780061854545
ASIN: 0061854549
Publication Date: June 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New!!!Great Condition, No Remainder Mark. We Have Over 3,500,000 Books Sold!!!
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Showing reviews 16-20 of 39
 just whay I ordered August 28, 2009
S. Leach
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book came quickly and was in the expected condition.I would use this supplier again.
 Understanding the Psychology of Irrational Behavior August 28, 2009
Larry Underwood (Scottsdale, AZ)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dan Ariely has put together a remarkable study into the consistently irrational behavior which has shaped our decision making prowess ever since Eve tempted Adam with that apple. And that's a long time ago.
However, mankind has been making weird decisions for as long as any historian can track; the most obvious case history is the logic behind the way the stock market has behaved since The Great Depression; and before it, for that matter. Logic? The only thing logical is the consistency of how illogical it has always been. The successful investor knows how to gauge the public sentiment for a particular investment, and once it catches on, it's off to the races. Of course, the opposite holds true as well.
Ariley's conclusions are remarkably similar to other books I've reviewed on the subject, so I suppose there's comfort in knowing there is in fact, sense to be made out of apparently senseless events. One thing I've learned over the past year or so; don't ever think you have anything figured out. That's usually followed by the moment you realize nothing really makes much sense at all; how else do you explain the eternal optimism a Chicago Cubs fan has every April?
Bada bing!
Irrationally good, which one could have predicted August 21, 2009
M. McDonald (Chicago, IL United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Predictable Irrationality is the primary source book for a range of business books on behavioral economics now flooding bookstores. Dan Ariely's readily accessible, insightful and interesting book is the grandfather of popular behavioral economics and highly recommended.
The issue of economic behavior becomes critical given the emergence of new social technologies and customer driven processes making this a non-obvious business book to read.
The book focuses on the fact that economic theory has largely been based on the notion of actors having full knowledge and making rational choices. While the Internet may be increasing knowledge throughout the economy, Ariely's book shows that individually few of us make very rational choices. That observation, backed by a series of innovative and surprisingly simple experiments makes the book a must read.
This book is a foundational resource for the following books: Free (Chris Anderson), Buyology (Martin Lindstrom) and How We Decide (Jonah Leherer). So if you liked these books, read this, as it's a primary source for all of these books.
Strengths:
* Ariely breaks the issue of irrationality down into easily digestible chunks focusing on the different types of decisions we need to make each day. This makes the book much more actionable and understandable.
* The experiments are well explained making it easy for a businessperson to identify similar decisions that they create for customers and execute internally.
* The book illustrates and explains the rational behind things that we all know but always wondered about.
Challenges
* The book is long on explanation and exploration of irrationality but relatively short on prescriptions on how to address the issue. Often Ariely's advice is to have people be more rational as a cure for their irrationality. That makes sense but it is not particularly helpful.
* The book crosses multiple disciplines: economics, psychology, education. This makes for a wide audience and interesting reading, but it causes gaps for people looking for deeper insight. This is not a business book, but it's a book that business people can take a lot away from.
* The book has an underlying bias that because individual irrationality often leads them to make `wrong' decisions it is the responsibility of some other body (e.g.: Government) to protect people from making bad choices. (Page 48) That is a bit of a slippery slope from a public policy perspective related to personal responsibility, accountability, etc that the reader needs to keep in mind.
Recommended for marketers who need to understand how they position their offerings and structure customer decisions.
Recommended for executives who need to understand behavior in economics, particularly now that new technologies are engaging the individual customer behavior in new ways than ever before.
Recommend for IT professionals as they need to incorporate behavior in the IT solutions they build, the behavior of their own people and the behavior in how they work with their business peers.
Overall a great book, entertaining, insightful and it provides the foundation for much of the books that follow from it. Highly recommended.
Good for mainstream readers August 20, 2009
innovAZN
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's an interesting read and very easy for non-econ people to understand. I've never really given a second thought to behavioral economics before, but am now looking forward to taking a class on it this winter quarter.
I very rarely buy books, but have no regrets buying this one.
This was really an eye-opener August 15, 2009
Mariusz Skonieczny (ClassicValueInvestors.blogspot.com)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
We like to believe that we are rational. Many investment philosophies are based on efficient market theory, which assumes that market participants are well-informed and act rationally. I always found efficient market theory to be flawed, because when I looked at individual investors, I would get surprised more and more every day by how irrational their behavior was. So how it is possible for markets to be efficient, when most investors I know are completely irrational? Well, this book has some really good explanations.
The author of this book shows us that even though we believe that we act in a rational way, in reality we act in predictably irrational way. As a result of this irrationality, we frequently make poor decisions with our money, life partners, and health. For example, we tend to overvalue things that we own. We might be made to believe that something works even when it doesn't. A placebo is perfect example.
This book was really an eye-opening experience. We all do the things the author talks about. As I read this book, I kept catching myself and saying, "Yes, I did this, too." I enjoyed reading this book, and I would recommend it.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market
Showing reviews 16-20 of 39
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