Predictably Irrational Audiobook by Dan Ariely

Read by the author himself and produced by Harper Audio

Book Review

Rating- 5/5 for the concept 4/5 for the execution 3/5 for the abrupt conclusion

Genre- Non fiction possibly self help

Dan Ariely begins with the end in mind! The author is a self made man and possibly a devout catholic with the way he holds on to Bible and the Ten Commandments! Though he mentions he is an Israeli! I am a big fan of the Israeli Novelist Yuval Noah Harari and this can explain my bias to another one of the same country!

This book was referred to me by my senior and now mentor in audio book, Dr Vinod Nadig ; a big thanks to him!

Dan was a survivor of a burns injury and he begins by describing his ordeal and survival and how the very fact that his dressing change made him think about whether the removal of dressing fast and rapid is the way to go or to remove it slowly! When he presented this finding to the nursing staff, they told him that it was a painful experience to them also! That very fact actually escaped his mind! Though he still felt that his way was better! Personally being a doctor, I would have been more happy if he had given more compliments to them for having treated him rather than blaming them in every possible way in subsequent chapters! But of course this was in 2008 and I am hopeful that after COVID his opinion would have rationally changed!

Having got that out of my mind lets dive into the book!

He begins by stating how people often select irrationally or make irrational choices when it comes to making decision of money! How many times the choices are there as a decoy! He begins with an example of a subscription package of a paper where he is presented with three choices, one online for 60 or so dollars, one only print for 125 dollars and final for both combined at 120 or so dollars! He was tempted like all of us for the one with combined one since that was middle ground! Then he understood that the extreme option was a decoy!

Like many authors even he mentions Daniel Kahneman and his works in these area and also mentions a similar finding! At this point I was glad that I read Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking fast and slow which seems to be the final reference point for many!

Then he mentions how when you are offered some extreme offers you tend to go for the middle ground! How when you see the most costly item in the menu you go for the second costliest patting yourself for a decision well made when in fact that was the decision which was thrust upon you!

He then debunks the myth of supply and demand giving examples of Tahitian Black Pearl and Starbucks coffee on how once the anchor price point is set then you accept them in a higher price bracket when they may not be so!

He then moves on my favourite topic! The free or zero concept! You must understand that nothing in the world is free! If it is free then you are the product! He states that the word free gives us a big emotional charge and clouds our judgement so much that we end up making bad choices just to get something which we really do not want for free!
He illustrates this with an experiment of chocolates and that’s a very interesting experiment!

He then moves on to the social and friendly factor; on how many things which you may not do by getting paid, you may do for free because that is a part of social norm! How some work gets negative impact if you get paid for it! He states by telling a thanksgiving party story on how the son in law makes a payment for the mother in law on her excellent meal! Here he introduces the concept of social norms and market norms giving clear examples on how to keep them apart!

Then he moves on to how emotions play a big role in decision making which is eerily similar to what Daniel Kahneman mentions in his book! His next chapter on procrastination and self control is an extension of that very concept though he calls it cool and hot state! A similar analogy was used by Mark Manson in his book Subtle art!

He then tells us about this interesting phenomenon called the endowment effect! How a partial ownership of a product makes us do anything and everything to keep it to ourself! How we value our things higher than the buyer! He illustrates this with an example of Game ticket! He also mentions how we bid in an auction and get partial ownership which makes us keep the product as if it belongs to us! It’s how we get to try a product or a subscription free for few days and then we get ownership and subsequently it’s difficult to let go! This is a very interesting and true phenomenon!

He then tells us about the effect of expectation that shapes stereotypes and how prior information affects our decision!
The next chapter is my favourite in which he describes the power of placebo and he dives into the medical world with gusto giving examples to support his viewpoints though I felt this was biased and one sided! He also mentions how costlier medication and medications which have a Pre determined notion are more effective! This is of course true to a point but I can personally assure Mr Ariely that when you buy Generic drugs in India, the amount of active salt will be less! So take it at your own risk!

He of course gives very good examples of the placebo effect and the effect of prior knowledge and how many times you can get better with placebo!
In the end like many authors though Dan does gets his own opinion in between and that tends to dilute the sanctity of a non fiction book! He tells how people are honest and dishonest to a limit and how cash makes people more honest and how when the mode of consult is not cash then people tend to get more dishonest!

The selling point of the book was how he stated that a 5 cent aspirin is less effective than 5 dollar aspirin which gets to the catchphrase of the book on how people are Predictably Irrational!
His experiments are real nice and the way he used to tell he results made us wait with held breath! In the end he also invites people to be a part of his experiments! Somehow though I cannot but feel that his experiments are limited and Biased to begin with! Human mind is a complex mixture of an array of emotions and the only thing rational about human brain is it’s unpredictable nature! Of course that only my own predictably rational view!

The audio book is a breeze to listen and in less than five hours which is just three days of drive you can complete this one!

Check it out if you are a non fiction listener! Or if you are unpredictable then check it out anyway!