If I did not know that the people around me were talking about Obama, I would have guessed that I was among a group of excited fans, infatuated with a rock singer, or a movie star. In fact, when I ask Obama supporters about how they expect him to fare against other US presidents, their general answer is that he is likely to be the best president of all time (some think he will be second to JFK). (more…)

Try, one day, to walk up to someone, maybe up to many people, and tell them that you think they have made a mistake in their most recent decision. You can even try to sugar-coat it by telling them that the reason for this mistake is not because they are stupid or negligent, but because this is just the way they are wired — just the way their brain works. (more…)

The big day!

I stayed awake until midnight, just to see the countdown on my computer arrive at the “In Stores Now!” I went to bed soon after but at 2:30 AM woke up, full of excitement, and could not fall a sleep again. I was not too worried because I was sure that the excitement would give me sufficient energy for the day ahead and indeed this was correct.

From 7:00 AM until 4:30 PM I went from studio to interview and back to studio. TV was a bit strange because the time was so short, and the pace was so fast. Radio was more relaxed and conversational. Magazine interviews felt even more natural. (more…)

I am delighted to announce the birth of Predictably Irrational.

Predictably Irrational was born after a rather long but mostly painless labor, and so far seems healthy and in good spirit. Predictably Irrational is largely orange and blue, but they tell me that this is normal (or at least acceptable).

At birth it is about 300 pages, and 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches.

They tell me that the next few weeks will be a lot of work around the clock, and sleepless nights. But as the proud father, I am looking forward to this next step.

Dan

Some time ago I realized that I was a bit tired of the dryness of academic writing, and I wanted to write something different and fun (at least for me).

After some contemplation I decided to combine my passion for the kitchen with my passion for my research and write a guide for the kitchen from the perspective of decision making and human irrationality. I was excited. I even found a name for the project–Dining Without Crumbs: The Art of Eating Over the Kitchen Sink.

Excited, I sat down and wrote a book proposal. When I finished, I gave it to MIT press and e-mailed it to a few literary agents. As it turned out, no one was very excited about the idea of a social scientist writing a guide to the kitchen. Eventually I got good advice from Susan Arellano, a literary agent that was representing my good friend Greg Berns. (more…)

Leonard Lee, George Loewenstein, James Hong, Jim Young and I recently conducted a study on the ways that one’s own attractiveness influences their perception of, and actions toward, others.

The first question we had is whether people who are less attractive themselves view the attractiveness of others differently. Using data sets from HOTorNOT.com we found that regardless of how attractive people themselves are, they seem to judge others’ attractiveness in similar ways, supporting the notion that we have largely universal, culturally independent standards of beauty (e.g. symmetric faces). Moreover, we found that people prefer to date others who are moderately more attractive than they are themselves. (more…)

A few years ago I got a new Audi A3. The car was great and I loved driving it, but about three months later, while I was driving down the Mass turnpike (trucks on my right and left), the transmission stopped responding and the car lost speed, fast. It was very dangerous to maneuver to the right shoulder, but eventually I made it.

Over the next month or so I had multiple “chats” with the Audi customer service representatives, as well as with the Audi repair shop where my car had become a permanent fixture (I think they were trying a new experiment on how to best annoy their customers and they were getting better and better at this with every passing day). About 5 weeks after the transmission died, I drove my rental car back to Boston, and took my Audi back to Princeton. But this was not the end of it for me. (more…)

Tyler Cowen posted a blog today discussing one of the chapters in Predictably Irrational– the chapter on Free!

A lively discussion emerged from his posting, with people proposing many alternative accounts for the findings. Most of these alternative accounts are interesting (transaction costs, gifts, social norms) and they are ones that we have tested and have found that they cannot account for the phenomenon of Free!

For the complete paper describing many of the experiments see this link, or see Chapter 3 “The Cost of Zero Cost Why We Often Pay Too Much When We Pay Nothing”

Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Drawing on psychology and economics, behavioral economics can show us why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused, why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money. According to Ariely, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. Ariely argues that greater understanding of previously ignored or misunderstood forces (emotions, relativity and social norms) that influence our economic behavior brings a variety of opportunities for reexamining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational policy. Ariely’s intelligent, exuberant style and thought-provoking arguments make for a fascinating, eye-opening read. (Feb.)

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Last week the second largest bank in France, Societe Generale, announced that it had uncovered a 4.9 billion euro ($7.14 billion) of fraudulent trades, allegedly committed by a 31-year-old trader named Jerome Kerviel.

Before we decide which parties are to blame, let me tell you about some experiments we recently conducted on cheating with MIT and Harvard students. (more…)