The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home |  | Author: Dan Ariely
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
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Rating:  61 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
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Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0061995037
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.4
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Product Description
The provocative follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational - Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive?
- How can confusing directions actually help us?
- Why is revenge so important to us?
- Why is there such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy?
In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more. Drawing on the same experimental methods that made Predictably Irrational one of the most talked-about bestsellers of the past few years, Ariely uses data from his own original and entertaining experiments to draw arresting conclusions about how—and why—we behave the way we do. From our office attitudes, to our romantic relationships, to our search for purpose in life, Ariely explains how to break through our negative patterns of thought and behavior to make better decisions. The Upside of Irrationality will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home—and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
 Fascinating look at human behavior May 29, 2010
John Chancellor (New Orleans)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
In his latest book, Dan Ariely takes another look at some irrational behavior of humans. I am not sure that there is an upside to all the different irrational behaviors he explores. You could make the case that by becoming aware of our irrational behavior and understanding better where it comes from, we might be in a better position to make appropriate changes. My point is I am not sure the title is indicative of the subject matter.
I found the book fascinating. At times I thought that he might be going into too much detail or dragging the story out a bit too long. But as I finished reading the book, I found that the lessons were sticking with me. I suspect that his teaching and writing techniques are highly developed and his approach is one that will leave the greatest impact on the student or reader.
There are several important concepts that he explores in this book. One subject I truly enjoyed and learned from what our innate desire for revenge. To illustrate the point, he told about his unfortunate experience with the purchase of an Audi automobile. At one time or another most of us have felt taken advantage of by a large company with rigid rules and procedures. I strongly felt his sense of outrage toward Audi. And while the story is a great example, I also feel sure that he is getting some revenge by telling how horrible their customer service can be. I am certainly not their ideal prospect but based on the story, I would never consider buying an Audi. I do believe that social media has leveled the playing field and given the average consumer a way to lash back. But as he points out in the book, revenge is a hollow victory and when we get consumed in seeking it, we generally lose.
There are numerous other concepts involving irrational behavior that he explores. One is our tendency to make rash decisions under the influence of emotions and then to continue to make decisions which are consistent with the emotional based decisions long after the emotional feelings have faded. We can become victims of our own emotional decisions.
Dan tells plenty of very personal stories in this book. You get to know him very well ... at times you get to share in-depth some very personal painful experiences he has gone through. It makes him very real. He is extremely open and transparent in this book. You will probably find it difficult to read about some of the pain he experienced during the recovery from a terrible accident. But there are some very valuable lessons imbeded in the stories he tells.
I immediately found myself using some to the lessons in this book in my work helping others. One very important lesson involves what we get from work. He told the story of a book editor who completed the task of editing a book and was paid the agreed price. She was then told by the publisher that he had decided not to publish the book. On a rational level, it should have made no difference. But she was highly disappointed. The lesson is we want/need both the material compensation from work and the feeling of contribution we get from work. Without the feeling that what we do matters, we are left with an emotional letdown.
There is an interesting chapter on why online dating does not work and another chapter on how compensation is a poor motivator. Reading this book will give you a much better understanding of human behavior.
The book is very easy to read. It is written in a totally conversational style. Dan has the rare gift to take a complex subject and present it in easy to understand concepts. His approach to writing is somewhat different but I believe highly effective in terms of understanding and retention.
As Daniel Goleman pointed out in his books Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence, so much of our success is dependent on our social and emotional intelligence - not our IQ. This book will help you improve your social and emotional intelligence.
Well worth the wait. May 27, 2010
Kevin Hogan (Minnesota)
47 out of 57 found this review helpful
Fans of Predictably Irrational will be pleased with the second installment into what appears to be an "Irrational" series.
I would quibble with the title and the subtitle of the book but what really matters is what is between the covers.
Without giving away a book full of hard earned research results, perhaps capturing a clip from the book will best describe why this book will do so well.
In a comparison of perceived clutch basketball players with bankers, you find out that there really is not much evidence for a category of "clutch" basketball players. Yes, these players get the ball more in the final five minutes of the game, and therefore score more points but they perform no better or worse than they do in the rest of the game. The notion of the "clutch player" is not completely negated, but evidence is brought forth that any apparent higher caliber play in the final five is simply a function of more opportunities.
The reason this research was done was to build on research conducted in India using a limited bank account but wanting to find out just how performance bonuses might motivate people.
Various individuals are offered a chance to be given certain amounts of money based upon how well they perform in 8 games. It turns out the more money possible to be scored, the more likely the individual was to fail at the games. There was a bump over people performing for little more than a few hours of their time taken up but a more significant bump for individuals who received moderate sized "bonuses."
The experiment was laid out to show that large bonuses...amounting to as much as 5 months worth of income if medium difficulty level tasks were completed...don't motivate but actual interfere with performance.
Ariely was obviously on top of the notion that this part of India was incredibly poor so having a chance at 5 months worth of income was truly dramatic.
As I read this I thought, "yes but could this be the difference between eating and not eating, or is this the difference between buying a TV or not having a TV."
With that mindset I found the results fascinating.
If you've ever watched the TV Show Survivor, you've seen similar behaviors by people who consistently lose. People who let the pressure get to them because the clock is ticking... can do nothing but fail, and do indeed fail. But in Survivor there is always a winner. Some adapt. Some do not. An area for further study perhaps.
I suspect Ariely's findings will generalize in most areas of business. It's hard to imagine that mega-bonuses do anything but reduce performance. Sharing a similar view with an audience of bankers he reports having found little support for his notion. No surprise to Ariely or the reader.
Perhaps most interesting are his final thoughts on this specific topic which is decision makers he's spoken to at companies seem clueless as to the effects of bonuses on performance and they seem uninterested in testing to find out what the results are.
Each section in the book is filled with nuggets. There are many aha's to the wise. There are many moments of "Oh I knew that already," because the human mind is geared to have excellent hindsight and great ability to change what we would have predicted before the fact... Trying disengage from that bias is not as easy as one might think!
The Upside of Irrationality delves into a host of fascinating areas.
The research goes into the dating arena. Ariely shows us why we overvalue the things we make ourselves. He explains many things not covered by others in the field including a very nice indepth look at why we seek justice.
Like it's predecessor this book entertains, informs and gives pause for thought in your (my) own life.
Kevin Hogan
Author of The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking
Wow! This is good stuff! June 5, 2010
MagicSkip (Marriottsville, MD)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
In some ways, I want to call this a pop-psych book, but it's more than that. This is not some kind of a fuzzy feel-good self-help book. This is more of "Hey, I tested some of the 'common knowledge' stuff, and found out that it is more like 'common fantasy' -- let me tell you the truth about it!"
Dan Ariely is not a boring psychology / behavioral writer - he is more of a storyteller. So while he may be writing about psychology and behavioral topics, he's doing it in a storytelling fashion, which makes it infinitely more readable and accessible to a common man like me.
This book is a great narrative of someone who THINKS. Someone who notices something odd in someone's behavior, and then decides to develop an experiment to test it out. Is the behavior really unusual, or is the 'common knowledge' wrong? Maybe people don't actually behave the way that everyone expects!
Obviously, I'm trying not to give away any of the key discoveries of the book. Suffice to say - I am learning a lot from it! I hope to be able to take what I've learned and put it in to practice!
I highly recommend this book. Also, now that I have read this, I'm going to go find and read Ariely's previous book!
Due credit is given to the power of irrationality June 8, 2010
Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States(cashbacher@yahoo.com))
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The first overall theme of this book is that humans are largely irrational and the second is that there are many beliefs that have been proven wrong and a lot of others that could be proven wrong. Ariely takes on many common beliefs, the one that most people of 2009-2010 will find of interest is his conclusion from experiments that large bonuses paid to executives are counterproductive. Furthermore, substantial bonuses to any employees generally lead to inefficiency rather than increases in productivity.
There are two main reasons that I found this book to be interesting. The first was the set of experiments that Ariely designed and carried out with his colleagues and the second were the conclusions that he reached from the experiments. All the experiments were attempts to learn more about human behavior, covered many different things and were well done. Some examples are:
*) The relative ability to tolerate pain
*) The general failure of online dating strategies
*) What really motivates people to be more productive
*) How people alter their perceptions of the (un)attractiveness of certain physical characteristics over time
*) Why revenge is such a critical (and often unappreciated) component of human behavior
*) Do some players perform better when the game is on the line? This is commonly known as "in the clutch."
Interspersed with the experiments and conclusions are descriptions of the terrible burn injuries that Ariely suffered during his late teen years. His recovery was slow and he never returned to a normal state and his descriptions of some of the treatments are not for the emotionally weak. For this reason, while some will find his personal experiences interesting, others would prefer that they had been left out.
The best line is when Ariely says that any academic economist that really believes that business managers will always behave economically rationally has obviously never worked a day outside academia in their life. Irrationality is a powerful driving force that is often not given enough credit for how strong it is. In this book Ariely, gives it the due credit.
OK, so I'm a fan already June 25, 2010
Karen Tiede (Raleigh, NC)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Writing as reviewer #31, having written a number of other reviews myself: what is it about this book that virtually all of the reviews thus far, even the negative ones, are multi-paragraph and thoughtful? Usually, by the time a book has 30, we're seeing the "loved it!" "hated it!" "Didn't arrive on time!" filler. Not here. Ariely's work sticks in your mind, and you are inspired to write more than you normally would.
That said--it appears that behavioral econ gets really really close to marketing, as a field of study. Economists are testing and discovering what marketers have known since Ogilvy wrote his first ad.
Both of Ariely's books are "news you can use." I find myself referring to the stories--we cheat, given the opportunity. We make decisions about sex differently when we're drunk (duh, but that's rarely addressed in sex ed). (Still haven't forgiven him for presenting 50-yo women as "beyond the pale" in that experiment, BTW.) Those experiments are from the first book. I know the one about Legos and meaning in work from this book will find its way into my life--watching work get canceled or undone has had a huge effect on my own career and motivation.
Many of the review copy books that come my way get passed on to book swaps, in hope that someone else will find them more useful. I'm keeping this one. I'll be back in it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
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