Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
This book warmed my little nerdy heart. Dan Ariely is a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University. This book explains that consumer behavior is rarely logical, and well irrational.
This book was brilliant so I'll go through the points that stuck out in my mind:
It's really hard for consumers to lose something. It rarely crosses our mind if we never had it to begin with but if we had it - don't let it go away. i.e. people in debt will not downsize their extravagant living.
Choices available STRONGLY influence are decision making. We almost always choose the most appealing middle option. We love the middle. Do we have free choice? Our behavioral patterns mostly imply we don't. Our free choice is relative to our available choice.
We love anything 'free'. yup.
Humans are social, we are much more giving, willing to do much more time and effort into work if it is for free than if we are paid.. that is unless we are paid a lot.
Options are distracting. We love to keep options open to the point that it takes time and effort away from things that are really important to us. Maybe we need to make effort to close some doors.
We have a tendency to add sentimental 'value' to market value of possessions. Owners will price higher than buyers.
Placebo have a greater effect on us than we think. Especially high cost placebos.
There is a great relationship between dishonesty and one step removed from physical money. People won't steal money. They will steal almost anything else.
Okay, lots of stuff in this book. I absolutely love the author. Dan Ariely writes on economics and behavioral science like it's fun, well maybe it is. Top ten.
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