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Ori Brafman

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior Paperback – June 2, 2009

by Ori Brafman (Author), Rom Brafman (Author)

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A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.

Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).

Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.

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206 pages
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English
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Broadway Books
Publication date

June 2, 2009
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5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
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0385530609
ISBN-13

978-0385530606
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for SWAY*

"A breathtaking book that will challenge your every thought, Sway hovers above the intersection of Blink and Freakonomics."--Tom Rath, coauthor of the New York Times #1 bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?

“Now we know why no one ever coined the phrase ‘rational exuberance.’ Behind the surprising ways we all make choices, the Brafmans find biology, humanity, and the wisdom of our collective experience. As a longtime student of how financial decisions are made, I found their insights utterly fascinating. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop—and I suspect the Brafmans could tell you exactly why!”
--Sallie Krawcheck, CEO, Citi Global Wealth Management

"Count me swayed--but in this instance by the pull of entirely rational forces. Ori and Rom Brafman have done a terrific job of illuminating deep-seated tendencies that skew our behavior in ways that can range from silly to deadly. We'd be fools not to learn what they have to teach us."--Robert B. Cialdini, author of New York Times bestseller Influence

“Brilliant.”
—Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum

"A page-turner of an investigation into how our minds work . . . and trick us. Think you behave rationally? Read this book first."--Timothy Ferriss, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek

"Sway helped me recognize an aspect of irrational behavior in my experimental work in physics. Sometimes I have jumped into some research that didn't feel quite right . . . but some irrational lure, such as the hope of quick success, pulled me in."--Martin L. Perl, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Physics

*DISCLAIMER: If you decide to buy this book because of these endorsements, you just got swayed. One of the psychological forces you’ll read about in Sway is our tendency to place a higher value on opinions from people in positions of prominence, power, or authority.

(But you should still buy the book.)

"If you think you know how you think, you'd better think again! Take this insightful, delightful trip to the sweet spot where economics, psychology, and sociology converge, and you'll discover how our all-too-human minds actually work."--Alan M. Webber, founding editor of Fast Company magazine

About the Author

Ori Brafman is coauthor of The Starfish and the Spider and is a renowned organizational expert who regularly speaks before Fortune 500, governmental, and military audiences. A graduate of Stanford Business School, he lives in San Francisco.

Rom Brafman holds a Ph.D. in psychology and has taught university courses in personality and personal growth. His current research interests focus on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships. He has a private practice in Palo Alto, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

ANATOMY of an ACCIDENT

Taking off at Tenerife.
The oversensitive egg shoppers.
The lure of the flat rate.
Would you like insurance with that?
So long, Martha's Vineyard.

The passengers aboard KLM Flight 4805 didn't know it, but they were in the hands of one of the most experienced and accomplished pilots in the world. Captain Jacob Van Zanten didn't just have a knack for flying. His attention to detail, methodical approach, and spotless record made him a natural choice to head KLM's safety program. It was no surprise, then, that the airline was keen to show him off. One magazine ad featuring the smiling captain captured it all: "KLM: from the people who made punctuality possible." Even seasoned pilots--not exactly the type of individuals prone to swoon--regarded him as something of a celebrity.

On the flight deck of the 747, en route from Amsterdam to Las Palmas Airport in the Canary Islands, Van Zanten must have felt a sense of pride. Today's trip was moving along with the smooth precision that had become his hallmark. The schedule was straightforward: land in Las Palmas, refuel, and transport a new set of passengers back home to Holland.

But then Van Zanten got an urgent message from air-traffic control. A terrorist bomb had exploded at the airport flower shop, causing massive chaos on the ground; Las Palmas would be closed until further notice.

The captain knew that at times like this the most important thing was to remain calm and proceed with caution. He had performed drills preparing for this kind of situation countless times. In fact, Van Zanten had just returned from leading a six-month safety course on how to react in exactly this kind of situation.

Following standard procedure, the captain obeyed orders to land fifty nautical miles from his original destination, on the island of Tenerife. There, at 1:10 p.m., his plane joined several others that had been similarly diverted.

Now, you don't need to be a seasoned airline pilot to appreciate that Tenerife was no JFK. It was a tiny airport, with a single runway not meant to support jumbo jets.

With his plane safely parked at the edge of the runway, the captain checked his watch. Seeing the time, he was struck with a worrisome thought: the mandated rest period.

The Dutch government had recently instituted strict, complicated rules to which every pilot had to adhere. After getting in touch with HQ and performing some quick calculations, Van Zanten figured the latest he could take off was 6:30 p.m. Flying after the start of his mandated rest period was out of the question--it wasn't just against policy; it was a crime punishable by imprisonment. But taking the rest period would open its own can of worms. Here in Tenerife there would be no replacement crew to take over. Hundreds of passengers would be stranded overnight. That would mean the airline would have to find them a place to stay, and there weren't enough hotel rooms on the island. In addition, a delay here would initiate a cascade of flight cancellations throughout KLM. A seemingly minor diversion could easily become a logistical nightmare.

It's easy to imagine the stress that Van Zanten was experiencing and why he became so determined to save time. It was like being stuck at a red light when you're late for a big meeting. Try as you might to stay calm, you know that your reputation is on the line; your frustration grows, and there's really not much you can do. But there was one thing Van Zanten could do: the captain decided to keep the passengers on board, so that when Las Palmas reopened, he could get back in the air immediately.

But the air-traffic control personnel who worked at Tenerife tower were of a different mind-set. Here was a small airport on a tropical island, now inundated with planes from all over the world that had been diverted because of the Las Palmas explosion. Not only was the tower understaffed, but the air-traffic controllers were in no hurry to get planes out of the gate; they were, in fact, getting ready to listen to a live soccer match on their transistor radios. Twenty minutes after landing, Van Zanten received word from the tower that he should let his passengers off: it looked like they would be here for a while.

From there, events at Tenerife continued to move forward like molasses. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. The captain spent every moment thinking of ways to minimize the delay. He held a strategy session with his crew. He called KLM headquarters to find out exactly how much time he had left before the mandated rest period kicked in. An hour on the ground had turned into two; then the captain came up with another idea. He decided to refuel at Tenerife and thus shave half an hour off the turnaround in Las Palmas.

But this time-saving idea backfired. As soon as Van Zanten started refueling, word came from Las Palmas that the airport had finally reopened. But it was too late to stop the thirty-five-minute refueling process.

Finally, just when it looked like the plane was set to go, nature threw its own wrench into the plan: a thick layer of fog descended upon the runway.

Kicking himself over his decision to refuel, Van Zanten became even more intent on getting under way. With the fog growing thicker, visibility dropped to just 300 meters--so poor that gazing out the cockpit window the captain couldn't see the end of the runway.

Van Zanten knew that every moment the fog got worse made it that much likelier that the Tenerife tower would shut down the airport. He saw that his window of opportunity to get out of Tenerife before an overnight stay was closing. It was now or never--time to go.

But what the captain did next was completely out of character. Van Zanten revved up the engines, and the plane lurched down the runway.

"Wait a minute," Van Zanten's copilot said in confusion. "We don't have ATC clearance."

"I know that," replied the captain as he hit the brakes. "Go ahead and ask."

The copilot got on the radio and received airway clearance--approval of the flight plan. But the tower said nothing about the vital takeoff clearance. And yet, determined to take off, Van Zanten turned the throttles to full power and roared down the foggy runway.

The jumbo jet was gaining momentum when, seemingly out of nowhere, the scariest sight Van Zanten could have imagined appeared before him. A Pan Am 747 was parked across the runway, and Van Zanten was approaching it at take-off speed.

There was no way to stop or swerve. Instinctively, Van Zanten knew that his only chance was to take off early. "Come on! Please!" the captain urged his plane. He pulled the aircraft's nose up desperately, dragging its tail on the ground and throwing up a blinding spray of sparks.

The nose of Van Zanten's plane managed to narrowly clear the parked 747. But just when it looked like he was in the clear, the underside of Van Zanten's fuselage ripped through the top of the Pan Am plane.

The KLM plane burst into a fiery explosion as it hurtled another five hundred yards down the runway.

Van Zanten, his entire crew, and all of his passengers were killed. In all, 584 people lost their lives that day.

The aeronautical community was stunned. It was by far the deadliest airplane collision in history. An international team of experts descended on Tenerife airport. They examined every bit of evidence, interviewed the eyewitnesses, and scrutinized every moment of the cockpit recorders in an attempt to pinpoint the cause of the accident.

The experts quickly ruled out a mechanical failure or terrorist attack. Piecing together the events of that day, it was clear that the other plane on the runway, Pan Am Flight 1736, had missed a taxiway turnoff and ended up in the wrong place. The thick fog contributed to the disaster. Van Zanten couldn't see the Pan Am plane, the Pan Am pilot couldn't see him, and the tower controllers couldn't see either one of them. On top of that, the tower was undermanned and the controllers were distracted by the day's events.

Despite all these factors, though, the tragedy would never have occurred if Van Zanten hadn't taken off without clearance. Why would this seasoned pilot, the head of safety at the airline, make such a rash and irresponsible decision?

The best explanation the investigators could come up with was that Van Zanten was feeling frustrated. But that didn't quite add up. Feeling frustrated is one thing; completely disregarding protocol and forgetting about safety is another.

Clearly, Van Zanten was experienced. Clearly, he was well trained. And clearly, he was good at what he did. How could he cast aside every bit of training and protocol when the stakes were so high?

The aeronautical experts turned over every stone in their search for an explanation. But there was something in Tenerife that remained completely hidden. Alongside the rolling fog and crowded airfield, an unseen psychological force was at work, steering Van Zanten off the path of reason.

A growing body of research reveals that our behavior and decision making are influenced by an array of such psychological undercurrents and that they are much more powerful and pervasive than most of us realize. The interesting thing about these forces is that, like streams, they converge to become even more powerful. As we follow these streams, we notice unlikely connections among events that lie along their banks: the actions of an investor help us to better understand presidential decision making; students buying theater tickets illuminate a bitter controversy in the archeological community over human evolution; NBA draft picks point to a fatal flaw in common job-interview procedures; women talking on the phone show why a shaky bridge can be a powerful aphrodisiac.

Charting these psychological undercurrents and their unexpected effects, we can see where the currents are strongest and how their dynamics help us understand some of the most perplexing human mysteries. These hidden currents and forces include loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid possible losses), value attribution (our inclination to imbue a person or thing with certain qualities based on initial perceived value), and the diagnosis bias (our blindness to all evidence that contradicts our initial assessment of a person or situation). When we understand how these and a host of other mysterious forces operate, one thing becomes certain: whether we're a head of state or a college football coach, a love-struck student or a venture capitalist, we're all susceptible to the irresistible pull of irrational behavior. And as we gain insight about irrational motives that affect our work and personal lives, fascinating patterns emerge, connecting seemingly unrelated events.

Let's examine the first of these streams, to help us solve the mystery of what happened with Captain Van Zanten. We find our first clue in an unlikely place--the egg and orange juice aisles of our neighborhood supermarket.

Professor Daniel Putler, a former researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has spent more time thinking about eggs in a year than the rest of us spend in a lifetime. He carefully tracked and studied every aspect of egg sales in southern California. Looking at the data, he found some interesting patterns. Egg sales, for instance, were typically higher during the first week of each month. Not surprisingly, they were abnormally high in the weeks leading up to Easter, only to experience a sharp decline the week after. That was all well and good, but Putler's next discovery wasn't just of use to the USDA and Al the grocer. Poring over cash-register data that reflected egg-price fluctuations, Putler identified what is referred to in economics as an "asymmetry."

Now, traditional economic theory holds that people should react to price fluctuations with equal intensity whether the price moves up or down. If the price goes down a bit, we buy a little more. If the price goes up a bit, we buy a little less. In other words, economists wouldn't expect people to be more sensitive to price increases than to price decreases. But what Putler found was that shoppers completely overreacted when prices rose.

It turns out that, when it comes to price increases, egg buyers are a sensitive bunch. If you reduce the price of eggs, consumers buy a little more. But when the price of eggs rises, they cut back their consumption by two and a half times.

Anyone who's made a shopping list with a budget in mind can tell you how this plays out. If the price drops, we're mildly pleased. But if we see that the price has gone up since last week, we get an oh no feeling in the pit of our stomachs and decide it's cereal for breakfast that week instead of scrambled eggs. This feeling of dread over a price increase is disproportionate--or asymmetric--to the satisfaction we feel when we get a good deal.

We experience the pain associated with a loss much more vividly than we do the joy of experiencing a gain. Sensing a loss as a result of the high price, the shoppers can't help but put the carton back on the shelf.

And it's not only egg buyers who are affected by the pain of a loss. A group of researchers replicated Putler's study among orange juice shoppers in Indiana and arrived at the exact same results: Midwest OJ drinkers are just as finicky about price increases as are Los Angeles omelet makers. Regardless of geography and breakfast preferences, losses loom larger than gains.

Putler's research illuminates a mystery that economists have been grappling with for years. For no apparent logical reason, we overreact to perceived losses.

This principle is key to understanding Van Zanten's actions. But before we return to Tenerife and the investigation, it's important to see how our aversion to loss plays out in our own decision making.

Think about the seemingly straightforward decision we make when we sign up for a new phone service. After wading through the phone company's electronic menus, we're presented with a choice: we can either pay for service by the minute or opt for a flat monthly fee and talk till the cows come home. Chances are that the pay-as-you-go plan is our better bet. Most of us just don't talk enough to justify a flat-rate plan.

But at this point loss aversion kicks in; we start imagining ourselves gabbing like teenagers into the night. The fear of a monstrous bill looms, and we sign up for the unlimited plan "just in case."

Economists can scold us for making a poor choice, but in deciding which service to sign up for, we're willing to sacrifice a little bit to avoid a potential loss.

AOL stumbled upon this same phenomenon when, after years of charging clients by the minute for their dial-up Internet access, it introduced a flat-billing option. The results were catastrophic, but not in the way you'd think. As AOL's CEO explained, the flat-pricing plan was "working too well." New customers were signing up in droves, and for three months AOL's servers were completely jammed. As with the phone service, Internet users wanted to avoid the perceived loss associated with pay-as-you-go.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Broadway Books (June 2, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 206 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385530609
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385530606
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #77,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #179 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #273 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- #274 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions

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4.4 960 ratings

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Ori Brafman

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Ori Brafman is a multiple New York Times bestselling author, researcher, and entrepreneur. His upcoming book, Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership, co-authored by 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, GEN(R) Martin Dempsey, argues that today’s leaders are in competition for the trust and confidence of those they lead more than ever before. Bringing examples from business, academia, government, and the military, Brafman and Dempsey assert that the nature of power is changing and should not be measured by degree of control alone.

The White House, the world’s largest organization for financial professionals, and the Chicago Bulls alike turn to Brafman when focusing on organizational culture change, increased employee engagement, business transformations, leadership development, and adjusting to emerging technologies. He has advised all branches of the U.S. military, the Obama White House, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, NATO, and YPO, among others. His media appearances include the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC News, BBC, National Public Radio, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News, C-SPAN, and AP Video.

Brafman is founder and president of Starfish Leadership and co-founder of the Fully Charged Institute, which combines his work with that of Tom Rath. Brafman is a Distinguished Teaching Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business focusing on improvisational leadership, data science, and artificial intelligence and a Senior Fellow at the Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center at Duke University.

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Jim Muccio

How to Use Both Parts of Your Brain

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

In 2008, Ori and Rom Brafman reached the New York Times Bestseller list with "Sway, The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior" which runs from anecdote to anecdote describing people making decisions that they think are perfectly informed by the facts, when in fact, they are perfectly informed by many other factors that sway their judgement, most of it they don't even realize. It's no secret that first impressions deeply color what comes next. It's no secret that human's have a emotional side that draws deeply from their intuition about things rather than their quantitative analysis of any given situation. Nevertheless, it's always fascinating to read these stories as it connects us to the fate of others. As long as that's understood, I have no trouble with this book. Take the story of the Stradivarius on the subway. In this encounter a world class concert violinist abandons the music hall and tuxedo (I don't even know what a concert violinist would wear) in favor of street musicians clothing performing in a subway during rush hour. Could anyone discerne a quality performance rising above the noise of their daily lives? Very few of the thousands passing by gave more than a nod...and a grand total of one person actually recognized who he was. Is this any different than driving to work in the morning with the sun in your eyes and failing to see that the light has changed from green to red? There is no difference...running that red light was no more irrational than failing to pick out a world class performance while rushing to work through a crowded subway station.

Compare and contrast that with the decision of a seasoned 747 pilot to abandon his safety checklist in order to save time and reputation. What could have possibly driven a man as seasoned and programmed as the computer sitting in front of you now, to disregard his own programming?

Very little about the human condition can be ascertained from the examples presented in this book other than, as worldly and self aware of our surroundings that we think we may be, human perception is actually very poor and significantly limited in scope. Since we are resourced constrained we tend to take the first information that we assess as necessary for our survival and filter out the rest. Which is why a first impression, will always have the biggest impact on us. No matter where that first impression originates. Once our brain does the filtering...it doesn't want to go back and reclassify the information...that's hard work. Once we are swayed there is almost no turning back.

You could read all the neuro physcology books in the world and not come up with a better explanation for why it happens...why the irrational decisions shape our human existence. Take skydiving for instance. Unless you have a burning desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane I doubt anyone would be able to talk you into it. Even when you've convinced yourself the odds are pretty good that you will survive the drop, it's not the odds that count. No matter how safely you prepare, no matter how many facts you read about the safety of the sport, diving out the door of an airplane at 10,000 feet is not a natural act. Plummeting through the wind at up to 200 mph is simply something that our human bodies have never considered at any time during evolutionary development. Thus, only from the irrational, can we arrive at a decision to do so.

We cannot change our irrational side. Nor should we. Through stories, not science, books like Sway give us a deeper understanding that our irrational side is real. It's our instincts that have kept us alive for 10,000 years. Therefore it's not the irresistible pull of irrational behavior that gives us a story. The real story is why can't rational behavior win in the big the tug of war going on in our brain. In small ways, understanding that which makes us human, helps us to recognize the times when we are inhuman, as with a corporate decision to lay-off 10,000 employees to balance the spreadsheet, or at a time when we need to invoke our inhuman side, like when being in command of a 747 jumbo jet and making a decision to take off in a dense fog. We've got the ability to use both sides of our brain. The trick is to decide which one it's time to use. "Sway" gives us examples of situations where we should at least consider both sides. Four Stars for a very easy read with very good stories as examples...very similar in style Gladwell.

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Sculpin

Swayed by the cover

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 29, 2009

Verified Purchase

I read this book hoping to gain additional insight into the decision-making process. I decided to buy the book based in part on the first line on the inside of the book jacket: "Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock...?" It turns out I was "swayed" by that one line - the book was about decision making, but in a much more general sense than just financial markets.

Sway is a very easy read, of interest to anyone wanting to know more about people and their behavior. If you're thinking you'll get analysis of behavioral economics or finance then I can't recommend it, because - unfortunately - there is no focus on those areas. In fact, the book is mostly full of stories and anecdotes rather than analysis of the ideas in question. The main targets of discussion include:

* Pain Aversion -we don't want to experience loss more than we do want to experience gain.
* Commitment - it's difficult to change once you've committed to a particular path.
* Value Attribution - the worth you place on something is very dependent on our initial impression. In other words, what we expect is often what we get.
* Fairness - many decisions we make have more to do with how fair the transaction is than to what the benefit is to us.

The discussion that I found most fascinating, though, looked at how we approach a task. According to the book, we can approach a task either altruistically or from a self-interested perspective, but not both. Once we approach something from a self-interested perspective, it takes over our altruistic intentions. Shifting from altruistic to self-interested intentions might even motivate us to not take on the task. For example, while we might do something for altruistic reasons, we might not do it for compensation. If offered compensation, we might lose our altruistic intention and drop from the task completely. From an economic perspective, it is interesting to consider how monetary incentives may not perform the way we would expect or hope.

From an investment point of view the most significant take away from the book is the chapter on loss or pain aversion. I've personally seen this in action many times and it can lead to bad decisions. This chapter is worth the price if you think you're caught up in that issue, but it is at such a general level it won't do much other than, perhaps, make you aware of the issue.

I'm rating Sway 3 out of 5 stars because, while it is interesting to read and people unfamiliar with the subjects may learn something, the book doesn't go into enough depth. Nonetheless, I think any reader will find sways that have impacted them and identifying those may be beneficial.

9 people found this helpful

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George Carey

Informative and encouraging

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2023

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Rom and Ori bring us an informed perspective on our behavior, provoking additional thought about our motives and actions. A worthwhile read for those seeking reasons for otherwise unexplainable thought patterns in ourselves and others.

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Jason Yip

Excellent read, but too short

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 1, 2013

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This is an exceptionally easy book to read: in fact, as it's already a small book, that's the main reason why I've given it 3 rather than 5 stars. I read the book in one evening (in less than two hours), but the stories and examples given are very well put together and coherent. If you're a slow reader, add an extra star.

What would make this book gain the extra two stars? More content, more examples, and a little less "context bias". What do I mean by context bias? Well, whilst the stories are true, they do omit a few little-known facts that would actually sway you AWAY from what the authors are saying. I won't give examples, as that'll spoil the stories for the reader (and they are very well told stories). Nevertheless, the authors look like they are onto something, so I give them the benefit of the doubt in that statistically what they're talking about does make sense (I write from a mathematician's point of view in that respect).

The book has an American bias, as I didn't know what drafting was (in basketball). The book gives an extremely brief description of drafting, but no content in how it works in the real world - I had to do a Google search and look up 'drafting' on Wikipedia to really understand why the story about drafting was relevant to the book. It's kind of like if this were a UK book, not explaining the offside rule in football ('soccer') to non-football followers.

Do I recommend this book?
If you like a different take on how people operate, YES.
If you like well told stories, a definite YES.

All in all, it's a good read: it lasts as long as a standard film, but much cheaper. But weirdly I felt "short-changed" once I finished reading it, a similar feeling to when you watch a film and at the end you're told "it was all a dream".

4 people found this helpful

Philokypros Andreou

A must for everyone who wants to survive in today's challenging and brutal world!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2010

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Reading this book you will be able to unlock the way irrational people think & act, as well as the reasons why they do it. Therefore you can easily predict their reactions and you can be prepared for what to expect. After reading this book, I feel there are no more irrational behaviours and people, as I've learned the way to look into explaining why the behave in such a way. As a result, I have saved myself and our Company from many perils and turned them into successes, including of making profit from the unexpected!!! Ever since, I have bought literally dozens of copies of this book, giving them to my middle & top management at work and beloved ones, so as they can solve the mistery called "irrational behaviour and irrational people". To conclude, I consider this book one of the handful of books I highly recommend as the best "survival kit" for today's challenging and brutal world!!!

2 people found this helpful

Jim McCrory

if only I read this when I was but a boy.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 8, 2013

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What makes doctors, politicians, businessmen, aircraft pilots and people from all walks of society make the most illogical blunders at times with grave consequences. What makes a university undergraduate find himself biding $204 for a $20 bill. Irrationality!. This book is a light-hearted read with narrative gripping illustrations that act as a page turner. A book that everyone in society would benefit from reading before they enter their adult life.

A. D. MCGHEE

Really insight book...a must for leaders, teachers or anyone who works with others.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

Truly excellent book. So many insights as to why we are so easily influenced by unconscious thinking styles that then affect our behaviour.
Try a different behaviour by not reading book reviews and buying this book on intuition alone... you won't be disappointed.

2 people found this helpful

Bobski

Psychology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 28, 2019

Verified Purchase

Excellent small book with illuminating insights

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