The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home

We learned from the 2008 economic crisis that irrationality is an influential player in financial markets. But it is often the case that irrationality also makes it way into our daily lives and decisionmaking-in slightly different and vastly more subtle ways. Since irrationality is an inherent part of the way we function and think, it's time to look at how it affects our behavior, up close and personal. In PERFECTLY IRRATIONAL, behavioral economist Dan Ariely will explore the many ways in which our behavior often leads us astray in terms of our romantic relationships, our experiences in the workplace, and our temptations to cheat. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking analysis and new research into our decisionmaking processes, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. In each chapter, Dan will examine data from original experiments to draw invaluable conclusions about how-and why-we behave the way we do in these areas of our lives. In an extension of his conclusions, Dan will also reflect on ways to make ourselves and our society better. Among the topics Dan explores are: What we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy; How we learn to love the ones we are with; Why online dating doesn't work, and how we can improve on it; Why learning more about people make us like them less; Why large bonuses can make CEOs less productive; How to really motivate people at work; Why bad directions can help us; How we fall in love with our ideas; How we are motivated by revenge; and What motivates us to cheat. Drawing on the same experimental methods that made Predictably Irrational such a hit, Dan will emphasize the important role that irrationality plays in our day-to-day decisionmaking-not just in our financial marketplace, but in the most personal aspects of our lives.