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September 28, 2008
Predictably Irrational
I forget where I heard about Dan Ariely's book Predictably Irrational, but I had the presence to put it on my library hold list at the time. It came in a week or so ago, and I finished it while watching Dawnise bake for the last time in our current oven.
As I sat here for a few minutes, trying to summarize my thoughts, I realized I need a bit more time to digest the work. It's either "very interesting" or "incredibly significant," and perhaps both. Through repeated experiment, Ariely turns classical economic theory - with it's foundation built on rational actors making rational decisions - into something of a laughing stock. He shows, in contexts ranging from honesty, to sexual arousal, to our reaction to something being "free" how humans not only don't act rationally, they act predictably irrationally.
Read it, digest it, and let's talk - I want someone to bounce this one off of...
Posted by dberger at September 28, 2008 7:04 PM
Comments
You'll see this on the web all the time, especially with something that is "limited". Release a new web site and have limited sign ups that require an invitation and suddenly everyone wants an invitation. Whether they need it or not doesn't matter -- they gotta have one. A friend that does web analytics has seen this numerous times on a significant site that announces new findings on the web. When there are limited tokens, there are more click throughs. Always.
Posted by: Steve S. at September 30, 2008 9:08 PM