Academic

I have taken to listening to books on tape - or, more accurately on IPod - during my commute to work. Recently, I began listening to a book written by a behavioral economist, Dan Ariely. In “Predictably Irrational” he argues that, contrary to the assumptions we typically see in social science, people act irrationally in many situations. However, he suggests, we can predict this irrational behavior. He also has a pretty cool website. Below the fold is some copy for the book and a fun picture of the author from his website.

Note: The author likes to describe himself as a “beehavioral economist”

From the book:

Do you know why we so often promise ourselves to diet and exercise, only to have the thought vanish when the dessert cart rolls by?

Do you know why we sometimes find ourselves excitedly buying things we don?t really need?

Do you know why we still have a headache after taking a five-cent aspirin, but why that same headache vanishes when the aspirin costs 50 cents?

Do you know why people who have been asked to recall the Ten Commandments tend to be more honest (at least immediately afterward) than those who haven?t? Or why honor codes actually do reduce dishonesty in the workplace?

By the end of this book, you?ll know the answers to these and many other questions that have implications for your personal life, for your business life, and for the way you look at the world. As a bonus you will also learn how much fun social science can be, and how to see more clearly the causes for our everyday behaviors, including the many cases in which we are predictably irrational.