Predictably Irrational

Ariely, Dan.  Predictably Irrational.  New York, NY: HarperCollins.  280 pages.  $25.95.  [ISBN: 978-0-06-135323-9]

Written by Dan Ariely, this book questions the assumption that people primarily behave in fundamentally rational ways.  The book’s introduction provides some insight into the author’s background, including a serious burn accident caused by the explosion of a magnesium flare.  Undergoing several years of treatment because of third-degree burns he suffered on 70 percent of his body, Ariely began to observe activities that were once part of his daily routine much more closely.  He became interested in understanding what motivates people and causes them to act the way they do.

From identifying the importance of relativity in a human’s ability to determine what things are worth to understanding the power of price, the reader is asked to examine their own ideas about rational human behavior.  Some of the topics covered in this book are procrastination, the cost of social norms, the effect of expectation and the context of character.  With each experiment, the author makes excellent cases for his theory that people’s behavior is much more irrational than what most would think.  Since he points out that people make the same kind of mistakes over and over again, his argument is that this kind of irrationality can be predicted.

One of the more interesting experiments Ariely conducts is described in Chapter 12.  He places six packs of Coke and a plate full of dollar bills in college dorm communal refrigerators to see which would disappear first.  Within 72 hours, each can of Coke had disappeared, but the plates of dollar bills remained untouched during the same period of time.  From this experiment, Ariely determined that dishonesty is much easier when people deal with non-monetary objects.

Understanding that irrational behavior can have serious consequences, Ariely proposes clever solutions that would reduce the effects of this kind of behavior.  One of these ideas he gives is creating a self-control credit card that would let people restrict their own spending behavior.  Being so convinced that this was a good idea, Ariely proposed it to one of the major banks. Unfortunately, he did not hear from the bank again, perhaps underestimating the value of the $17 billion dollars in interest that credit card companies make annually.

In conclusion, I found this book to be an engaging read.  It helped me reconsider my own ideas about why people act the way they do.  In conclusion, Predictably Irrational will prompt you to rethink what you take for granted about your own understanding of the principles of human behavior.

Sophia Guevara
Research Librarian