Predictably Irrational: The Cost Of Zero Cost By Ariely

Predictably Irrational explores how little control we actually have over our irrational behaviors. It shows us many different flaws in seemingly well informed decisions. Ariely was inspired to write this book after he was separated from society for 3 years. Nearly 70% of Ariely’s body was covered with third-degree burns after an explosion of a large magnesium flare hit him. During his 3 years of social outcast, Ariely started to look at society as an outsider, he also noticed what caused people to behave the way they do. Ariely’s passion for researching and conducting experiments developed during his studies in a physiology course at Tel Aviv University.

Throughout the book, Ariely conducts various experiments to show us that many of the
For example, in Chapter 3, The Cost of Zero Cost, Ariely explains that when we are “buying” something for free, we might think that we have made the right decision, however in doing so, we often give up a better choice which might involve paying something.

The book focuses on how, what seems to irrational behavior, is in fact very common in many people can can simply be predicted by a couple of experiments. The main idea of the book is to explore how human behavior is affected by and affects areas of life for example, honesty, food choices, money, shopping, and procrastination.

One of the ideas explored in the book is how we believe the price of something is somehow related to the quality of that object. This part of the book explains in detail the role of the placebo effect mainly in the medical industry. The book gives many different examples ranging from a simple aspirin pill to a surgery designed to help with
The major experiment Ariely conducting for this topic involved the deadlines of his students’ assignment. One class could choose their own deadlines and would face penalties for not meeting them, the second class had no deadline at all, and the third class had strict deadlines evenly spread out throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, the class with strict deadlines had the highest average grades, and the ones with no deadlines at all, had the lowest average grades. I found this experiment very interesting as it’s results contradict popular belief. Since the last class had no deadlines, it seems fair to predict they would be the ones with the highest grades, as they would not have any penalties for failing to meet deadlines, and have the most time to finish their assignments. The three different options in the experiment are also similar to how some companies can choose to run themselves (e.g. authoritarian, laissez-faire, and democratic leadership). Different methods work best for different occasions. I would predict a more demanding course would have assignments with strict deadlines, and those with lower workload would have looser deadlines. Ariely goes on to suggest imposing “deadlines” for healthcare checkups, to ensure everyone gets checked regularly. While this method could increase