Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is a book that was recommended to me by a guy from a human resources firm after an interview. Even though I am still waiting for his answer about the job, I did manage to find an interesting book that gives me a glimpse on how behavioral economics and respectively marketing works. So whether or not I get the job, I did learn something new, hence I did get something good out of that.

This book sheds some light on how we are making day to day decisions based on our cultural and individual background. Depending on our situation we tend to conform to the majority or go against it, when purchasing goods. Depends on how we want to be perceived in society, even though what we had bought might or might not be what we had wanted. Do you want to conform or do you want to appear as an individual? Simple as that. The book is based mostly on behavioral experiments put together by the author in different locations and with different target groups. Most of these experiments were done on students from different high profile universities from the United States since the author is in fact a professor of social sciences.

Another thing I had learned is that everybody cheats, lies and steals even though the core values are good. As long as actual money is involved people tend to make more pragmatic decisions regarding theft than when goods are involved. For example you'd be more tempted to take a pen from work than to actually get some money from the communal jar of change in order to buy a pen. As long as there is something between your need or desire and the actual money, your perspective on being honest gets a little blurry. Another example that applies to me is when you buy something and you base your decision on extensive research especially if you have to choose between two similar things. All that wasted time on research in order to decide on a cellphone over the other can be translated onto missed opportunities of actually enjoying a cellphone (just an example).

This is a very interesting book on how our mind works, what makes us tick and how companies can take advantage on predicting our irrational behavior. I would say this is a must read for everyone, because our society is influenced by brands, labels, big companies and the overall majority. Why not take back this power and use it to our own advantage? One last thought: nothing is truly free, even free stuff comes with a price.