Soundview to Publish Summary of Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

PHILADELPHIA - March 28, 2013 - PRLog -- Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Dan 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 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 in Predictably Irrational, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. Learn more at http://www.summary.com/book-summaries/_/Predictably-Irrational.

Despite our best efforts, bad or inexplicable decisions are as inevitable as death and taxes and the grocery store running out of your favorite flavor of ice cream. They're also just as predictable. Why, for instance, are we convinced that "sizing up" at our favorite burger joint is a good idea, even when we're not that hungry? Why are our phone lists cluttered with numbers we never call? Dan Ariely, behavioral economist, has based his career on figuring out the answers to these questions, and in his bestselling book Predictably Irrational (re-released in expanded form in May 2009), he describes many unorthodox and often downright odd experiments used in the quest to answer this question.

Ariely has long been fascinated with how emotional states, moral codes and peer pressure affect our ability to make rational and often extremely important decisions in our daily lives -- across a spectrum of our interests, from economic choices (how should I invest?) to personal (who should I marry?). At Duke, he's aligned with three departments (business, economics and cognitive neuroscience); he's also a visiting professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His hope is that studying and understanding the decision-making process can help people lead better, more sensible daily lives.

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Founded in 1978, Soundview pioneered the concept of distilling the key points and ideas of full-length business books into easy-to-read 8-page text and 20-minute audio summaries, helping readers maximize their time and business intelligence. They have continued to enhance the summary content with author interviews, interactive author webinars, and video interviews with executives. Soundview’s 100,000+ subscribers worldwide include CEOs, government leaders, entrepreneurs, business consultants, academics, and students. Soundview is a part of the Philadelphia, Pa.-based Concentrated Knowledge Corporation. Visit http://www.summary.com/new for more information about Soundview Executive Book Summaries.