Originally published on Goodreads

Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is a book about how we don’t act as rational as we might think we do. The author is a psychologist who focuses on behavioral economics and the psychology of decision making and it is from his research that he gets his material.

The book is very easily read. Ariely describes the experiments in a simple way and makes sure to connect the experiments with the point he is trying to make. It has a lot in common with other cognitive science books such as Daniel Goleman’s books or Daniel Kahneman’s. Ariely writes in a very personal manner that makes this book easy to follow but sometimes it becomes too personal and Ariely sometimes uses this to make a political statement. The book starts strong with exploring how we make irrational choices even though economics would prescribe a perfectly rational choice. Towards the end of the book however I felt a bit annoyed with Ariely’s increasing commentary on contemporary events instead of continued exploration of the point of the book.

It’s still a very interesting book although it loses its steam around the halfway point.

4 out of 5 stars.