Predictably Irrational: Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition

A Comprehensive Book Review of Predictably Irrational

We are pawns. Most of the time we don’t understand what’s really going on. We think we’re in the driver’s seat and steering the course of our lives, but we are wrong. We’re really the victims of our own instincts and impulses. We procrastinate. We underestimate. We let fear make our decisions.
Standard economic theory assumes that we are rational, but we are not. Most of the time, we’re deeply irrational. Just because we’re irrational, however, it doesn’t follow that we’re chaotic. Our behavior isn’t random. As a matter of fact, we make the same mistakes over and over again, and there is nothing random about that. There are predictable patterns in our behavior. We have instincts that help us negotiate a complex world, and these instincts tend to channel us into repetitive behavior so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time making decisions about things that aren’t essential to our survival.
Traditional economics posits a world where people act rationally and make economic decisions based on their own best interests. But this unrealistic, and frankly simplistic, worldview does not advance economic understanding. Economics should be based more on how people really behave. This is the goal of behavioral economics, a field that uses psychological insight to understand economic decision-making.
In Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Dr. Dan Ariely looks at self-defeating behavior, the power of suggestion, of procrastination, the effects of placebos and many other aspects of our lives that we are often unaware of. Delusions and self-rationalizations lurk behind many of our actions, subtly undermining our best interest. Only until we learn and understand how our primordial passions steer our lives can we regain control. Without this awareness, we are often at the mercy of advertisers and others who know how to use these hidden mechanisms to manipulate our behavior.

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