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| Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions | 
 enlarge | Author: Dan Ariely
Publisher: HarperCollins
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.69
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (156 reviews)
Sales Rank: 179
Format: Roughcut
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 006135323X
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.83
EAN: 9780061353239
ASIN: 006135323X
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
Release Date: February 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great reading, entertaining, and very rational August 30, 2008
This book is a combination of a very entertaining reading with great content. Ariel presents the results of several social experiments he has conducted during years of research. Most of them are unexpected, or should I say irrational? But most of those behaviors are really predictable regardles of how ilogical they seem.
You can apply the lessons learned in this book to your daily life, if you are going to business school this would be a great complement to any of your courses (marketing, ethics, finance, etc.)
Best of all, it is very, very entertaining.
I hope you enjoy this reading.
No economist can afford to miss this August 24, 2008
Today's mainstream economics is largely based on assumptions of rationality. Ariely shows that such assumptions are completely wrong. This has large implications for running an economic system that achieves a good life for people. People are constantly trying to improve their lives by buying more "stuff," but within very short time periods they find themselves dissatisfied again. The most common measure of economic prosperity used by mainstream economists is the GDP--which essentially counts up what people spend on stuff. Is it any wonder that GDP statistics do not correlate well with quality of life? No economist can afford to miss reading this book. For more on this, see The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies and Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development.
One of Ariely's fascinating findings is that most people would not steal money directly from someone else, but that if the fact that one is stealing is disguised even slightly, most people will do it. This principle is in my opinion why pollution, deforestation, and exhaustion of resources are so difficult to control. We wouldn't steal a fisherman's wallet, but dumping a half-gallon of chemicals in a stream seems different to us, even if the effect on the fisherman's income is the same.
I was especially intrigued by Ariely's analysis of the power of "free". Ariely doesn't mention this, but free parking is a fantastic example. One form of destructive government subsidy that many people don't know about is local regulation requiring the provision of certain numbers of parking spaces around businesses and residences. Most American localities have such regulations, which are known as parking requirements. The idea behind parking requirements is to make sure that free parking is always available. Unfortunately, the effect is to favor automobile travel over other forms of transportation, like walking, that don't require all that vehicle storage space. It's a form of enforced inefficiency. U.S. building codes also favor the automobile in other ways, such as by requiring very wide streets. Parking requirements are one of the main reasons why housing is so expensive in the U.S. The cost of parking requirements in the United States is in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year. For more on this, see Donald Shoup's book The High Cost of Free Parking.
Insightful quick read August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this book, Dan Ariely describes some of the ways people act and react to various real life economic situations. He provides great insight into context of why we do some of the things we do and supports his conclusions with examples of some of the research he has performed with other researchers.
Incredibly well written and a quick read.
Great Read for Communicators August 16, 2008
I found this to be a pleasant and thought-provoking book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the fundamental underpinnings of human behavior. All of Ariely's observations are research-based and are presented in an extremly accessible manner.
One chapter of the book struck me as particularly important for communicators. "The Cost of Social Norms" explores the benefits and the risks of creating a social versus a purely business relationship with customers.
Done well, the social approach develops longer-term deeper relationships between the customer and the business. The customer acts on a sense of connectedness in the business and sustains the relationship through continued interactions and transactions.
Done poorly, the social approach can create a break-up with all the animosity of a nasty divorce.
This one is staying on my bookshelf.
Amazing read! August 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book suprised me with its deft mix of accessible reading and intelligent summary of research. The author's conclusions are easy to understand, easy to believe considering his research, and easy to apply to all sorts of areas of life. Applying his observations can improve a person, business, or a country economically, socially, and emotionally. You simply have to read this book to understand it. And it is well worth it.
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