Dear Friends,
My new book — Irrationally Yours is out today. The book is based on my “Ask Ariely” column with some amazing cartoons by William Haefeli.
Here is a sample of what you might learn from the book…..
- What can you do to stay calm when you’re playing the volatile stock market?
- What’s the best way to get someone to stop smoking?
- How can you maximize the return on your investment at an all-you-can-eat buffet?
- Is it possible to put a price on the human soul?
- Can you ever rationally justify spending thousands of dollars on a Rolex?
And here are some extra kind words from a few individuals:
With 70% of his body burned, 3 years in hospital, and decades of experiments in social science, Dan views life from a unique perspective. In this thoroughly entertaining book Dan providing insightful advice to a vast range of human problems. I loved it.
Terry Jones, Monty Python member, director, actor and writer
Ariely is a master observer of human foibles. His advice is funny, thoughtful, and well-founded. Sometimes all three together. My advice: read it, enjoy it, think about it.
Al Roth, Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University, Nobel laureate in Economics.
From advice on relationships to insight on superstitions, Ask Ariely is as informative as it is witty. I really enjoyed reading it.
Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, Sex Therapist
The human brain is one of the largest mysteries in the world. Trying to understand its complexities and improve our behavior is one of the main challenges society deals with. In Irrationally Yours, Dan shares with us some of these mysteries and the tools for accomplishing this task.
Anthony “Tony” Robbins, life coach. Author of Unlimited Power, Unleash the Power Within and Awaken the Giant Within.
Dan is the most provocative, interesting, and to-the-point advice columnist you are likely to read, whether on your job, your love life, your kids or your disrespectful neighbors.
Tyler Cowen, Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Author of Average Is Over and blogger at marginalrevolution.com
There is nobody better placed to solve your problems than Dan Ariely. A master of both rationality and irrationality, he’s wise enough to know which to recommend in any situation. A funny, addictive, life-changing book.
Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back
And here are a few links:
Amazon: http://bit.ly/1yIGKcx
Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1Jt1Wa8
iBooks: http://bit.ly/18k0Q3b
Books-a-Million: http://bit.ly/1yIGOcg
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Like This reader was inspired to pursue her dreams after reading Irrationally Yours. Hear her story below:
Irrationally Yours,
Dan Ariely
Here’s eight!
To see the entire collection of Reader Responses for Irrationally Yours, check out this album.
Irrationally Yours,
Dan Ariely
In this video, Day 7 in the Reader Response series, a reader explains how Irrationally Yours helped her become a better decision maker.
Irrationally Yours,
Dan Ariely
This just in: Critics are calling Irrationally Yours the best behavioral economics book to come out this May!
Hear what one reader has to say below.
Irrationally Yours,
Dan Ariely
Third in the Reader Response series, see what this generous reader has to say about my upcoming book Irrationally Yours.
Irrationally Yours,
Dan Ariely
Troy Campbell writes a personal piece about his mother and the psychology of monitoring.
It’s great to have someone who will be there when you ask for help; it’s even better to have someone paying attention to your needs and providing help before you ask for it. My mom is a shining example of this, and excels at what psychologists call “monitoring.”
In high school, I was often overwhelmed and sadden by a combination of gotta-get-into-Berkeley stress, a lack of dating, health problems and general teenage woes. But I was a boy, and boys do not cry — even teenage boys who listened to the whiniest emo music like me. This meant that no one really knew how I felt, except for my mom. Without her, I would have been lost.
For instance, one afternoon in late 2001, my mother was monitoring and noticed my sadness just by how I laid my backpack down. Immediately, she prepared me a delicious snack, suggested we go to my favorite In-N-Out Burger before she taught night classes, and made plans for the family to see Lord of the Rings later in the week. In seconds I went from stressed to smiling.
Having a monitor is important in everyone’s life. This is because all of us, not just boys, don’t often signal that we need help. Sometimes this is out of pride, but sometimes it is because we don’t even have the clarity of mind to know we need help.
When people are stressed or sad, they need two types of support that psychologists call “emotional support,” provided through empathy, encouragement and love, and “instrumental support,” provided through functional help such with homework, planning or finances. People, in general, are willing to provide these types of support to those they love. But many fail to monitor and check in on their loved ones, so they never detect problems.
To my mom, being a good person is not just doing what people ask of you, but going beyond that and constantly searching for those unasked questions. In the end, this means she winds up giving people what they truly need, not just what they ask for.
Now, it is true that some parents look out for their children too much. They coddle them, and this prevents them from developing into self-sufficient adults. Many argue that monitoring-like parenting practices are like always fishing for others instead of teaching them to fish.
However, sometimes you actually can catch a fish for a someone and teach that someone to fish at the same time. Many times, when my mom helped me deal with my allergies and immune deficiencies, she would give me mini lectures on how I could better practically and consciously care for the traits I had inherited from her. Though I was born with significant biological disadvantages, today I am quite healthy as I apply all the lessons my mom taught me about relaxation and food planning. There’s no doubt that monitoring alone is not enough. Any parental monitoring must be accompanied with other good parenting techniques
Monitoring might also strike some as annoying, or even prying. To combat this, you can learn to communicate with your mom to let her know when you need it and don’t. But all in all, this is a side effect that you just need to accept for the medicine’s fantastic benefits. Further, you need to realize that sometimes mom knows better than we do and it is in on average in our best interest for her to keep monitoring away.
Today, I am not the sad emo boy I was, nor am I the kid struggling with health problems. I am not the same, but fortunately my mom is. Even though I live 2,500 miles away from her, she’s still always monitoring. The only difference is that, when I’m stressed, she sends me the grown-up version of an after school snack and Lord of the Rings movie ticket: A surprise email gift certificate to a nice dinner and a show (which, for me, to this day, is still a ticket to a movie like Lord of the Rings, though my food tastes have matured greatly from a singular focus on In-N-Out Burger).
When I am a parent, I hope I will be the best monitoring parent around. I’ll have some stiff competition. As a social psychologist, I will be amongst a lot of older psychologists who will have many more years of reading and training on me. But I’ll have one advantage — first-hand experience with a true intuitive monitoring expert that has been teaching me for over 28 years and doesn’t show any signs of ever stopping.
Read Troy’s piece about Making More From Mother’s Day from last year here.
@TroyHCampbell studies marketing as it relates to identity, beliefs, and enjoyment here at the Center for Advanced Hindsight and the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. In Fall 2015 he will begin as an assistant professor at the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business.