Via Michael Reuter’s Blog (the guy behind yigg.de) I came across a book called “predictibally irrational” by MIT behavioural economics professor Dan Ariely. And, oh boy, Michael I truly agree with Michael. This is simply an amazing book on how and, more importantly, why people irrationally decide on things. Ariely has done some major research on probability heuristics and since Danny Kahneman, received the Nobel Prize in Economics “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty”, this field is getting more and more recognition within Science.
In his book, Ariely describes experiments he has done on his graduate students; About how the term “free” signifcantly interfers with our perception of the quality of a product; About how daily decisions (Should I grab a coffee? Should I go shopping?) are vastly influenced by the subtle but mighty force of comparison.
He even suggests when going to a single party you should take a person with you looking similiar to you - but! not as beautiful as you are (Won’t go into detail here, if you want to know why go and grab a copy :)). I strongly suggest that everybody should read this book. If you think about the things he mentions in the book I am sure one can profit in all walks of life.
