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The Irrational Bundle: Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty
Dan Ariely's three New York Times bestselling books on his groundbreaking behavioral economics research, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, are now available for the first time in a single volume.
763 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 12, 2013
About the author
Dan Ariely
33 books3,753 followersFrom Wikipedia:
Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He also holds an appointment at the MIT Media Lab where he is the head of the eRationality research group. He was formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Dan Ariely grew up in Israel after birth in New York. In his senior year of high school, Ariely was active in Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, an Israeli youth movement. While he was preparing a ktovet esh (fire inscription) for a traditional nighttime ceremony, the flammable materials he was mixing exploded, causing third-degree burns to over 70 percent of his body.[
Ariely recovered and went on to graduate from Tel Aviv University and received a Ph.D. and M.A. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in business from Duke University. His research focuses on discovering and measuring how people make decisions. He models the human decision making process and in particular the irrational decisions that we all make every day.
Ariely is the author of the book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, which was published on February 19, 2008 by HarperCollins. When asked whether reading Predictably Irrational and understanding one's irrational behaviors could make a person's life worse (such as by defeating the benefits of a placebo), Ariely responded that there could be a short term cost, but that there would also likely be longterm benefits, and that reading his book would not make a person worse off.
Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He also holds an appointment at the MIT Media Lab where he is the head of the eRationality research group. He was formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Dan Ariely grew up in Israel after birth in New York. In his senior year of high school, Ariely was active in Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, an Israeli youth movement. While he was preparing a ktovet esh (fire inscription) for a traditional nighttime ceremony, the flammable materials he was mixing exploded, causing third-degree burns to over 70 percent of his body.[
Ariely recovered and went on to graduate from Tel Aviv University and received a Ph.D. and M.A. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in business from Duke University. His research focuses on discovering and measuring how people make decisions. He models the human decision making process and in particular the irrational decisions that we all make every day.
Ariely is the author of the book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, which was published on February 19, 2008 by HarperCollins. When asked whether reading Predictably Irrational and understanding one's irrational behaviors could make a person's life worse (such as by defeating the benefits of a placebo), Ariely responded that there could be a short term cost, but that there would also likely be longterm benefits, and that reading his book would not make a person worse off.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 27, 2023
Re-rating because there is good evidence his research is both false and falsified. Ironic in an author writing about honesty, but then, he also taught the utilitarian value of dishonesty as well.
October 23, 2015
This extremely large collection took me about three months to complete. It was an excellent resource and weight of causing you to consider how we as human beings think and rationalize our decisions. I really hope to find more of the bands books in the future. I wish I could say there was only one facet of this three book series that was the most informative or the most interesting, but honestly it all was in its own way. I think I found the irrationality of how we are motivated and what motivates others to be probably the most useful in my career of education.
That being said, I found the authors personal story very inspiring. But what I found the most refreshing is the fact that he refers to his experiences without much of an emotional reaction to it that would make the reader feel any sort of pity for him. Definitely empathy, some sympathy, but no pity. I thought that was probably a very tough rope to walk.
I highly recommend this author. He was knowledgeable, interesting, and extremely entertaining. I did need to read this book and small snippets to avoid being overwhelmed with information. But it was awesome!
That being said, I found the authors personal story very inspiring. But what I found the most refreshing is the fact that he refers to his experiences without much of an emotional reaction to it that would make the reader feel any sort of pity for him. Definitely empathy, some sympathy, but no pity. I thought that was probably a very tough rope to walk.
I highly recommend this author. He was knowledgeable, interesting, and extremely entertaining. I did need to read this book and small snippets to avoid being overwhelmed with information. But it was awesome!
February 6, 2018
Love it, good read for (neo) liberals who argue against regulatory role of state to put borders to selfish corporate activities at the cost of consumers, who can easily be manipulated to not act rational at all, this is what Dan Ariely proves with quite some nice research.
September 2, 2018
I got this as an ebook bundle. They were combined into one book and I read them consecutively. I read a fiction book before starting the next book, though.
First book - 5/5, enjoyable and interesting, if a bit padded out. Very consistent with the TED talks.
Second book - 3/5, interesting, but did repeat things from the first book.
Third book - 1/5, mostly repeats from the first and second, got bored and quit 2/3 through (a couple of sections were repeats from books 1 AND 2)
I enjoy Dan Ariely's talks and did enjoy the first book. The concept of predictable irrationality is interesting to me, and something I can use in my work. I don't recommend this bundle, though. Hindsight being 20:20, I'd have just bought the first book, and then the second one a few months later so the repeats weren't so fresh. You could probably read any 2 books from this bundle and get 90% of the insights from all three.
First book - 5/5, enjoyable and interesting, if a bit padded out. Very consistent with the TED talks.
Second book - 3/5, interesting, but did repeat things from the first book.
Third book - 1/5, mostly repeats from the first and second, got bored and quit 2/3 through (a couple of sections were repeats from books 1 AND 2)
I enjoy Dan Ariely's talks and did enjoy the first book. The concept of predictable irrationality is interesting to me, and something I can use in my work. I don't recommend this bundle, though. Hindsight being 20:20, I'd have just bought the first book, and then the second one a few months later so the repeats weren't so fresh. You could probably read any 2 books from this bundle and get 90% of the insights from all three.
March 10, 2019
I’ll be honest about this, hah no I won’t! I started this book many years ago, only to read few experiments that were related to my interests. It’s a really big bundle of scientific experiments and besides knowledge on why we are so irrational, I took away two things: 1. Test everything, don’t rely on intuition alone, 2. It’s possible to break our own biases and stretch our “rationality”. I wish I could recommend this book to anyone that acts irrational (and then wonders why the other ones are to blame). Science couldn’t be more accessible than that, go for it!
November 14, 2018
One of the best bundles ever
Thank you Amazon for selling these three books as a bundle. Loved Dan’s work on human behaviour and his real life experiments. A very good book for those starting to explore Behavioural Sciences.
Thank you Amazon for selling these three books as a bundle. Loved Dan’s work on human behaviour and his real life experiments. A very good book for those starting to explore Behavioural Sciences.
June 12, 2017
Very informative, convincing and informative
May 21, 2021
Too verbose. Many of the arguments could be a lot more concise... was a bit of a pain to read. Felt like the arguments were over-simplified and kind of “dumbed down” for a lay audience : /
March 18, 2013
Love the area of behavioral economics, and in fact just gave a talk about this subject on Thursday: "Secrets of Decision-Making: for Retirement and for Life."
And, Ariely is a good guy, too. I emailed him to ask him if he's found gender differences in his behavioral economics research, and he replied to my email (said his researh hasn't found any gender differences).
So, I recommend all three of these books, and think highly of the author as well.
Jan Cullinane,
author, AARP's The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement (John Wiley & Sons)
The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement
And, Ariely is a good guy, too. I emailed him to ask him if he's found gender differences in his behavioral economics research, and he replied to my email (said his researh hasn't found any gender differences).
So, I recommend all three of these books, and think highly of the author as well.
Jan Cullinane,
author, AARP's The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement (John Wiley & Sons)
The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement
August 10, 2014
Dit drieluik is absoluut de moeite waard voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in psychologie en hoe een wetenschappelijk experiment in de psychologie wordt opgesteld.
Eén sterretje minder echter omdat zo'n e-boek toch wel een aantal belangrijke nadelen heeft ten opzichte van het papieren boek. Zo zitten er verschillende voetnota's in, maar de uitgever heeft niet de moeite genomen om een link achter de referentie te steken zodat je in je e-reader naar de voetnoot kan springen en dan terugkeren. En zelf bladeren gaat toch niet zoals met papier in zo'n e-reader.
Eén sterretje minder echter omdat zo'n e-boek toch wel een aantal belangrijke nadelen heeft ten opzichte van het papieren boek. Zo zitten er verschillende voetnota's in, maar de uitgever heeft niet de moeite genomen om een link achter de referentie te steken zodat je in je e-reader naar de voetnoot kan springen en dan terugkeren. En zelf bladeren gaat toch niet zoals met papier in zo'n e-reader.
March 24, 2016
I think I did a disservice by reading the three book bundle. I really enjoyed the first book (as I'm a big fan of behavioural economics) despite the fact that I found it to be padded heavily with unnecessary anecdotes and asides. But, partway through the second book, I started to find the text monotonous and repetitive and those feelings only increased the more I read. In the end, I only finished this out of obligation (I have a terrible habit of refusing to quit on a book), and the last book in particular was nearly unbearable.
October 20, 2013
The books started getting a little repetitive towards the end, but then, they weren't intended to all be read most likely.
I loved the whole series. There's a lot of situations where I could feel that a lot of the results the series laid out were directly reflected in my personal experiences. It allowed what were previously only hunches to evolve into a semi grasped understanding of the underlying behaviors that caused certain actions.
I loved the whole series. There's a lot of situations where I could feel that a lot of the results the series laid out were directly reflected in my personal experiences. It allowed what were previously only hunches to evolve into a semi grasped understanding of the underlying behaviors that caused certain actions.
May 6, 2013
An excellent and entertaining read about our irrational behaviours. Very much enjoyed reading it and it was a great accompaniment to the coursera course on Irrational Behaviour, however, I did find that there was quite a bit of overlap and repetition between the three books hence not the full five stars.
September 11, 2016
This took me a realllllly long time to read as I can never read too much in one sitting before getting a bit overwhelmed. As always, Ariely is funny, fascinating and full of mind-numbing information that makes you really think twice about how rational you are.
July 15, 2013
Very good, even if a tad repetitive across the bundle. An excellent introduction to behavioral economics, especially the first volume of the three. The last volume does a nice job of dismantling the traditional economic explanation of crime (as simply a cost/benefit calculation).
August 21, 2013
Dan Ariely is the rightful heir to the position of top Israeli-American behavioral economist named Dan. This is an engaging combination of experimentation, narrative explanation, and autobiography that does not get old across the three books.
July 8, 2013
An intelligent and fulfilling account of the lives we live.
July 18, 2014
an example how research should be presented to non-academics. the second and third books started to feel a bit repetitive, however - but were interesting nevertheless.
December 23, 2014
Not my favorite Ariely book (Honest Truth About Dishonesty)
December 5, 2021
Mostly back-to-back experiment findings. It is full of others’ studies and the author keeps coming back to his favorite test subjects: college frat guys and beer.
August 13, 2013
Excellent engagement - the Coursera class was fantastic!
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May 3, 2018Interesting use of sociological data to expose our mental self-deceptions and logical errors. It will make me more cognizant of the logical risks of certain situations.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews