Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition

Description

Dan Ariely challenges the familiar assumption that people weigh evidence calmly and choose whatever best serves their interests. Drawing on controlled experiments, research findings, and everyday anecdotes, he shows that human errors follow recurring patterns rather than appearing at random. Expectations alter experience, emotions redirect judgment, and social norms produce choices that ordinary economic models fail to predict. Ariely then scales these tendencies beyond individual behavior, connecting repeated mistakes to institutions, markets, and decisions associated with the 2008 financial crisis. His argument is not simply that people act irrationally, but that their irrationality can often be anticipated. The book uses that predictability to question economic theories and policies built around idealized decision-makers, especially when small biases accumulate into severe collective consequences.

Themes