BOOK REVIEW PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL
KOREA UNIVERSITY
UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
BOOK REVIEW
Predictably Irrational The hidden forces that shape our decision -Dan Ariely
Reviewed by: Sanila Pradhan
11TH June, 2013
Predictably Irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions, by Dan Ariely. Harpercollins, 2009. Reviewed by Sanila Pradhan.
‘Predictably Irrational” was a very enjoyable read for me. The title of the book is very appealing therefore, I decided to read this book. The title of the book points its finger towards us. Standard economics has the assumption that all the consumers are rational. But it is a known fact that humans are not always rational. Irrational behaviour is a part of human nature. As a behavioural economics professor at MIT, Dan Ariely has something more to add. In this book he claims that our irrational behaviour is predictable because we always repeat such behaviour knowingly or unknowingly. Therefore, it implies that we tend to behave irrationally but in a very predictable way. Ariely shows the flaw in the in the standard economics model implicitly, and gives us an idea why economics should have systematic and irrational human behaviour as its foundation.
I don’t agree with each and every claim the author has made but I think the author’s focal claim ‘Humans behave irrationally but in a systematic and predictable way’ is really valid. If we ask simple questions mentioned in the book such as, “Why do our headaches persist after taking a one –cent medicine but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?”, “Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save 25 cents on a can of soup?” and so on, we can quickly figure out that we do tend to behave irrationally, without any logic, and we can also recall behaving in the same way over a number of times. Thus, it proves to some extent that our irrational behaviour is truly predictable.
CRITICAL EVALUATION
In New York Times review, David Berreby stated this book as a concise summary of why today’s
UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
BOOK REVIEW
Predictably Irrational The hidden forces that shape our decision -Dan Ariely
Reviewed by: Sanila Pradhan
11TH June, 2013
Predictably Irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions, by Dan Ariely. Harpercollins, 2009. Reviewed by Sanila Pradhan.
‘Predictably Irrational” was a very enjoyable read for me. The title of the book is very appealing therefore, I decided to read this book. The title of the book points its finger towards us. Standard economics has the assumption that all the consumers are rational. But it is a known fact that humans are not always rational. Irrational behaviour is a part of human nature. As a behavioural economics professor at MIT, Dan Ariely has something more to add. In this book he claims that our irrational behaviour is predictable because we always repeat such behaviour knowingly or unknowingly. Therefore, it implies that we tend to behave irrationally but in a very predictable way. Ariely shows the flaw in the in the standard economics model implicitly, and gives us an idea why economics should have systematic and irrational human behaviour as its foundation.
I don’t agree with each and every claim the author has made but I think the author’s focal claim ‘Humans behave irrationally but in a systematic and predictable way’ is really valid. If we ask simple questions mentioned in the book such as, “Why do our headaches persist after taking a one –cent medicine but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?”, “Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save 25 cents on a can of soup?” and so on, we can quickly figure out that we do tend to behave irrationally, without any logic, and we can also recall behaving in the same way over a number of times. Thus, it proves to some extent that our irrational behaviour is truly predictable.
CRITICAL EVALUATION
In New York Times review, David Berreby stated this book as a concise summary of why today’s