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

Feb 10, 2013 Poonam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since long I have wanted to add a gist of review of this book, chapter-wise so that I could look up later.

Part 1 - Work-related Irrationalities

1. Big Bonuses don't work. (Which means CEO high salaries aren't quite logical.) Oh, but this is no way a bad news for your rewards and recognition program. Bonuses and reward should be just right, not too less that people do not care and not too much that enormity of reward at stake scares your people into failure.

2. Even though all of us work for a sala...more

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May 12, 2013 Fahima M (I Read, Ergo I Write) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The Upside of Irrationality is a very easy book to read. You just keep turning the pages, and before you even know it, its over. But by easy, I don’t mean that it is a light read. The author has an amazing style of writing that simplifies and makes complex concepts interesting, which if you find in your textbook, would probably drive you crazy by the time you understand it. His writing style is very conversational and in this book, he has included a lot of personal experiences, which for me, mad...more The Upside of Irrationality is a very easy book to read. You just keep turning the pages, and before you even know it, its over. But by easy, I don’t mean that it is a light read. The author has an amazing style of writing that simplifies and makes complex concepts interesting, which if you find in your textbook, would probably drive you crazy by the time you understand it. His writing style is very conversational and in this book, he has included a lot of personal experiences, which for me, made it all that much more interesting.

The book is based mainly on behavioural economics and psychology. Standard economics assumes that people are perfectly sensible, calculating machines, and hence says that people always make the best decisions, and mistakes are not likely. In the book, behavioural economics is basically used to trash standard economics. jk :) The book is divided into two parts: The ways we defy logic at work, and the ways we defy logic at home. The book covers many of the idiosyncrasies of human life, from revenge, to empathy.

The first part deals with procrastination, high stakes and stress, labour, this little thing called the IKEA effect, ownership, and revenge. Okay, now, I’m going to try to give you an idea of how the book is without spilling the beans on it. Generally, irrationality is associated with negativity. I actually looked up its synonyms on Word, and I got ‘groundless’, ‘foolish’, ‘ridiculous’, ‘absurd’ and similar words. Dan Ariely disagrees. He says that it s these irrationalities that actually make us human and allow us to enjoy life. Sample this. Experiments conducted on both humans and animals showed that when given the choice between earning something and simply getting it free, most chose to earn it. But some other factors also played into it, like how much you enjoy the labour, and how much meaning is attached to it. When the meaning of labour is reduced, even by a small degree, the motivation to continue comes does significantly. And if you don’t like what you’re doing, it has worse effects.

There are these interesting nuggets of information interspersed though the book containing interesting bits of information relating to the topics. For instance, there’s the story of the mythical king, Sisyphus, and how he was punished for deceit. He was forced to push a large rock up a steep hill, in itself a miserable task. Every time he neared the top of the hill, the rock would roll backward, and he’d have to start again. This is what happens when the meaning is taken out of our labour. We end up doing ‘Sisyphean’ labour. What solutions Ariely gives to this, I’ll leave to you to discover if and when you read the book. I felt that some chapters are actually linked and have a similar basis. The IKEA effect talks about how we tend to overvalue things that we make ourselves. And the Not-Invented-Here Bias (No, I didn't make that up. There really is something like that!) talks about how we tend to prefer our own ideas to others. I felt that these two are sort of linked, the underlying idea being that we favour things/thoughts that we have a hand in creating. The book contains many personal experiences of the author, which somehow made it a more like a conversation, and each time after I’d just finished reading one of these anecdotes, I would sit and think about anytime that something similar had happened in my or someone else’s life. And I found loads! One of my favourite chapters in the book is the one about revenge. Revenge, apparently, might be irrational, but not senseless and is in fact useful! It maintains and builds cooperation between the people in the society. How? When we were both kids, my sister did something to annoy me. I don’t remember what it was, but since I don’t, it must’ve been something trivial. But I do remember what I did to get even. I had a glass of rose milk in my hand, and I poured it all over her hair! A perfect example of irrational behaviour. So if you knew that I can be irrational, and not always reasonable, you wouldn’t try anything shoddy with me. I’m wondering why this hasn’t occurred to my sister yet. But then again, I never said she was rational! Interestingly, studies of brain waves with a PET, positron emission tomography show that revenge activates the part of the brain associated with rewards. Come on, when provided bad service, and then faced with an automated machine or a nonchalant attitude to your woes in customer service, how many of us wouldn’t pay dearly to extract revenge? I know I would! But the important point to remember here is to get back at the right person who is responsible for it. I'm sure you people would've watched Shrek (LOVED that movie, btw). Shrek was created by Dreamworks SKG, cofounded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was fired from Walt Disney Company. Revenge can lead to success, but like everything else in his world, it can also bring you down. A perfect example of this is the story of the Dassler brothers, the owners of Adidas and Puma. Sometime during the WWII, Rudolf Dassler misunderstood something that Adolf Dassler said, resulting in him starting his own venture, Puma. Few years back, Puma was taken over, so in the long run, his revenge was not successful. The second part of the book deals with subjects like adaptation, empathy and emotion, negative feelings, and their effects. Adaptation. It’s irrational at its core, but it’s one amazing thing with so many facets that can be explored endlessly. Adaptation to pain and drastic, seemingly ‘unfortunate’ incidents is focused upon in this chapter. There was this one bit in it that I really loved, and I actually burst out laughing. When Ariely was in university, his psychology professor, Ina Weiner, told them that women have a higher pain threshold and tolerance than men because they have to deal with childbirth. Dan went and conducted an experiment where he asked people to immerse their hand in hot water and remove it when they could no longer tolerate the pain. The men kept their hand in for much longer. When he announced his results in class, unfazed, without losing a beat, she told him that all he’d proven was that men were idiots. ‘Why would anybody,’ she said, ‘keep their hand in hot water for your study? If there was a real goal to pain, you would see what women are truly capable of.’ The chapter on Emotion and Empathy is probably the most serious topic in the book. Probably because it shows us, in plain black and white data, how human beings are less likely to help out someone they are not directly involved with, or know at least something about. But there are also ways mentioned in which we can manipulate our emotions for the better. I just had one teeny tiny problem with the book. The subtitle says, ‘The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic’. I picked it up mainly for that reason, and I didn’t find anything of the kind mentioned except in a few cases. I just feel that the title does not properly explain what the subject matter is.

What I loved in this book was the wider range of topics it managed to cover, despite it being short, and yet do justice to each. I’m a story person, so all those real life incidences and personal experiences kept me glued to the book. Oh! And for a person who previously hated economics, I found it truly entertaining, and thank God! It’s not one of those books filled with jargon, so that laymen cannot read it. Each chapter has at least one experiment that was conducted on that topic, and I found those interesting too. Plus, being a psychology student, I found many familiar concepts, and every time, it would be like a familiar friend waving out to me and I’d go, ‘Oh! Wow! I know that!’ The Upside of Irrationality is a book that delves into all our human quirks and makes us understand what lies behind them, so that ultimately, we get to know ourselves better and live a more contented life. And no, I’m not exaggerating when I say contented. Its a fun read, that makes you smile, laugh, frown, and gives a unvarnished view of how we really are. P.S.: I have a feeling this review is WAY too long :/(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

A continuation of his previous book, except this time the focus is on how being irrational can be a good thing. Book consists of a number of examples, each illustrated by social psych experiments.

- performance vs compensation is a U-shaped curve. The optimal compensation is somewhere in the middle. Once you exceed that level of compensation, performance starts to go down. Hypothesized explanation is that people can’t effectively concentrate because they’re so worried about the money

- NBA clutch...more A continuation of his previous book, except this time the focus is on how being irrational can be a good thing. Book consists of a number of examples, each illustrated by social psych experiments.

- performance vs compensation is a U-shaped curve. The optimal compensation is somewhere in the middle. Once you exceed that level of compensation, performance starts to go down. Hypothesized explanation is that people can’t effectively concentrate because they’re so worried about the money

- NBA clutch players are not really any more effective at shooting at those times; they just take more shots because other people believe they are more effective

- Lego experiment and paper experiment show that if a worker senses his work is futile or without purpose, performance goes down. Subjects were compensated to build lego characters, getting less money for each subsequent character. Even though they enjoyed playing with legos, subjects in the condition where legos were immediately taken apart after completion (in plain sight) performed 50% less than subjects who waited until the end of the experiment to take apart the characters. Similarly, people in a word-counting exercise performed much lower when either they did not put their name on their work, or when their work was immediately shredded (optimum performance was when their name was on the work, and filed away). Interestingly, there was little difference between not putting name on work and shredding.

- Having to do some work results in a much higher perceived value. For example, people are prouder of IKEA furniture when they have to assemble it. Similarly, instant cake mixes did not succeed until manufacturers added the “required” step of adding an egg.

- Not Invented Here bias is real - even when two “theories” were essentially the same, but with the words mixed in different order, people preferred “their” theory

- Revenge bias - people (and animals) have strong tendency for fairness. Would rather punish someone at their own expense than let someone get away with something unfair.

- We get used to how nice things are - new car no longer exciting, so we seek something new to replace that feeling. Study showed that happiness in UK was correlated to increases in salary, not absolute salary level

- People of differing attractiveness levels adapt by altering their criteria. Perceived beauty is universal though - less attractive people tend to realize when someone else is out of their league. This is less true for males than females though

- One death is a tragedy, one million deaths are a statistic. (Stalin). If I see the suffering of the masses, I will not act. When I look at the suffering of one, I am compelled to act (Mother Theresa). Urge to act to others is based on three criteria - closeness (physical proximity), vividness, and drop-in-the-bucket effect (will acting actually make a difference, or is it insignificant).
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Oct 15, 2012 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Famed business guru, Dan Ariely, knows just about all there is to know about decision making and how to have the outcome be the best possible thing. He has a long and accredited history in the field, and is highly acclaimed for all his work. He is considered one of the leading behavioral economists for his published articles and books. He is an Israeli American and is 45 years old. He has taught at MIT but currently teaches marketing and management and behavioral economics at Duke University. He...more Famed business guru, Dan Ariely, knows just about all there is to know about decision making and how to have the outcome be the best possible thing. He has a long and accredited history in the field, and is highly acclaimed for all his work. He is considered one of the leading behavioral economists for his published articles and books. He is an Israeli American and is 45 years old. He has taught at MIT but currently teaches marketing and management and behavioral economics at Duke University. He is married to his wife Sumi and has two children, Amit and Neta and they live in North Carolina.
He has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from University of North Carolina and also has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Duke University. He has written a myriad of articles for publications on the topics of psychology, cognitive reasoning, decision making, economics, marketing and combinations of these in addition to others. His books, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, are all acclaimed as groundbreaking works in their respective fields.
When Ariely was much younger, he suffered from third degree burns on most of his body due to an explosion at a traditional ceremony. This experience is what shaped him into the guru he has become and taught him more than enough about pain and dealing with the effects of injuries and recovery. This made him interested in seeking to administer more effectively to patients, which then led him to study the decision making process and how wrong decisions in some cases can prove beneficial and worthwhile.
Ariely’s second book, The Upside of Irrationality, was published in June 2010 and became a New York Times bestseller. It houses results from experiments that he, and his social scientist colleagues, performed and what they are led to believe from them all. The book is split up into two halves, defying logic at work and defying logic at home. Each section has multiple chapters that differ from each other greatly in topic but all come together in the respect that they are all about ideas and logic and adaptation in many different ways. Some of the chapter topics include valuing what we make, favoring our own ideas, revenge, getting used to things, adapting to dating, online dating, empathy towards people, negative feeling and learning from irrationalities.
The first chapter of Ariely’s book covers a topic that has been discussed recently in class, about how incentives may or may not be an effective way to entice workers to do better in their job area. The results are that when incentive is low, workmanship will also be low, but when the incentive is too high, workers fail to perform any better. A happy medium can be achieved with incentives, with workmanship up when incentives were mid-ranged. He did a study in rural India where employees were tested on creative skills rather than physical ones and offered three ranges of incentives. The results were much as expected, with the low and middle range incentives performing very similar to each other and the high incentive group doing poorly because they choked under the large amount of personal pressure they put on themselves. These are the results across the board and lead many economists and people in the management industry to believe that they should lower the incentive rate for employees in order to raise productivity. Bonuses may seem extremely enticing to the average employee but they do not see the implications that occur when the pressure of performing well in order to get the bonus is too high and when they fail, the failure is all the more disappointing because of what was on the line.
In Chapter 10, The Long-Term Effects of Short-Term Emotions, Ariely talks about our impulse reactions to certain events and how our emotions often get the best of us. Many of our actions are based off of impulse urges of emotions and we decide to do something one way on one occasion. However, if this occasion is repeated, your initial action is now the expected one and so it becomes normal, even if the particular emotion that sparked the action is gone; Ariely calls this the emotional cascade. It applies to entirely every aspect of life where we delve into patterned routines; it can include habits, relationship dynamics and your personality. The uncertain aspects of life are related back to previous occurrences and we tend to act the same way that we did previously, even if all the emotional and circumstantial aspects are different.
In the final chapter, Lessons from Our Irrationalities, Ariely discusses the process of rational decision making and how it is humanly impossible due to all of our internal, psychological factors. This is a topic we have covered in class and he continues with the fact that due to our mortal flaws, we must live with the consequences of our decisions. There is no way around our inevitable irrational decisions that we base off of personal bias, especially when the decision happens to be life-altering or seemingly so to us at the time. This may not always be perceived as the “wrong” decision but based on the implications of it, we are the ones who deal with the aftermath of our decisions so we must judge them accordingly.
Ariely articulately and in laypersons terms discusses what makes people tick and why they tick a certain way. His facts are thoroughly supported by his research and from what I have read it seems hard to argue the points he makes due to the logic and psychology behind it all. His ideas are extremely important and would be particularly useful to someone in a position of pure decision making, whether it is large or small ones. Personally, his ideas have helped me look at the big decisions I have made and evaluate them based on their positive or negative implications. Also, his studies on behavioral traits may be useful to just about anyone because they involve daily interactions and emotions that influence everything we do. It is easy to look back and see why you did something you regret, but in the heat of the moment it is not so clear for anyone to be rational. He acknowledges all of the flaws of humanity, gives reason to them and shows how they affect us in ways we may not realize.
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Aug 28, 2012 Kanti Brahma rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dan Ariely has divided the books into two broad parts: Part 1- The unexpected way we defy logic at work and Part 2- The unexpected way we defy logic at home. Each part has five chapters covering five different areas where so called rational human being behaves irrationally.
Why and bonuses work in motivating employees? How much bonus should be paid to employees performing physical work and mental work? When do we derive joy from our work, how comes the sense of contribution? Do people satisfy the...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Carol Moore rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Upside of Irrationality - Dan Ariely read, March 2012 ****

I enjoy reading Dan Ariely's books.
This is what I took away from his latest book:

Labor and Love
• The effort that we put into something does not just change the object. It changes us and the way we evaluate that object.
• Greater labor leads to greater love.
• Our overvaluation of the things we make runs so deep that we assume that others share our biased perspective.
• When we cannot complete something into which we have put great ef...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Soundview Executive Book Summaries rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-best-business-books

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely was chosen by Soundview Executive Book Summaries as one of the Top 30 Business Books of 2011.

THE SOUNDVIEW REVIEW:

Social scientist Dan Ariely delivered some of the most fascinating research in recent memory with his 2008 best-seller Predictably Irrational. The book examined the mysteries of human foibles and provided some pretty convincing evidence to support the claim that mankind can be pred...more The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely was chosen by Soundview Executive Book Summaries as one of the Top 30 Business Books of 2011.

THE SOUNDVIEW REVIEW:

Social scientist Dan Ariely delivered some of the most fascinating research in recent memory with his 2008 best-seller Predictably Irrational. The book examined the mysteries of human foibles and provided some pretty convincing evidence to support the claim that mankind can be predictable in its ability to defy logic. Ariely definitely caused more than a few readers to hesitate before making what had previously been automatic judgments in a wide variety of situations.

Now Ariely returns with the follow-up to Predictably Irrational. In The Upside of Irrationality, the Duke University professor provides a further look at the impact, both positive and negative, that irrational behavior can have on a person’s life. Aside from his unique perspective and groundbreaking research, Ariely is a wonderful storyteller. His sense of humor and ability to spin scientific data into memorable anecdotes shine in his latest book. The level of energy that makes him a sought-after lecturer shines through in chapter after chapter.

Executives should pay particular attention to Ariely’s discussion of a phenomenon he calls “The IKEA Effect.” In this section of the book, Ariely discusses the reasons behind why we place a much higher (and skewed) value on something we ourselves create. It leads one to draw the conclusion that in a work context, the IKEA Effect explains why many individuals become overly defensive about their own projects. However, an executive could also determine from Ariely’s research that a key to employee engagement is to guide employees to undertake projects in which they have a personal stake and, therefore, an increased amount of passion for the work. It’s interesting to note that Ariely points out that completion of the task is a necessary ingredient to create the IKEA Effect.

The book is a fast read and contains plenty of thought-provoking material for meetings. It will leave the reader wondering what area of human behavior will next fall under Ariely’s acute lens.

Soundview's 8-page Executive Book Summary of The Upside of Irrationality is available here.(less)

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Mar 09, 2012 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

* *

Once again, Dan Ariely (successfully and delightfully) takes on the school of rational economists who insist humans are "rational, selfish, maximizing agents." His research in the field of behavioral economics (as well as his keen insight developed from years of being human) has lead to his realization that: "If we place human beings on a spectrum between the hyperrational Mr. Spock and the fallible Homer Simpson, we are closer to Homer than we realize."
Each chapter in this irresistible book...more * *

Once again, Dan Ariely (successfully and delightfully) takes on the school of rational economists who insist humans are "rational, selfish, maximizing agents." His research in the field of behavioral economics (as well as his keen insight developed from years of being human) has lead to his realization that: "If we place human beings on a spectrum between the hyperrational Mr. Spock and the fallible Homer Simpson, we are closer to Homer than we realize."
Each chapter in this irresistible book takes a fascinating look at the irrational forces that move us away from Spock and more towards Homer:
*We behave more irrationally when the incentives are high
*We are less productive when we feel the work we are doing is not meaningful
*We tend to over-value our own ideas and creations
*We tend to under-value others' ideas and creations
*Our desire for revenge is one of our most basic human drives, and as such, it is incredibly difficult to overcome
*Our ability to adapt to both positive and negative experiences results in us often missing the mark when predicting our responses
*Although our individual level of attractiveness does not change who we find "hot or not," it does ultimately effect the relative importance we place on the "deeper" qualities of our (potential) mates
*The most effective services and products are ones that accommodate to our "Homer Simpson-likenesses"
*Individual emotional appeals--and not hardcore facts and data about the struggling "masses"--are the most effective ways to get us to respond to the suffering of others
*Acting on our emotions is often the result of the leakage from our past experiences, as well as the cause of unhelpful future decisions and habits
*We have oodles of irrational tendencies--most of which influence us in ways beyond our awareness

That's the downside of irrationality. But, as the book's title broadcasts: there's an upside to irrationality too. Dan shows how these same irrational forces are also the exact traits that make us wonderfully human. They are what allow us to: find meaning from our work, trust others, adapt to changing circumstances, love our creations and ideas, care about others, and enjoy our imperfectly perfect lives.

So, how do we become aware of the downsides of our irrational influences and harness their upsides? Ah...that's exactly what this book is all about. The secret to finding a comfortably human balance in the Mr. Spock/Homer Simpson spectrum lies within!(less)

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Dec 23, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

A nice extension to 'Predictably irrational'.

The most interesting and insightful chapter is the one about adaptation. The author explains the known fact that people (and frogs...) have a tremendous ability to adapt to bad/good situations, which is great when it helps getting used to a burden, but is a shame when it means becoming 'blasé' of things that once made you excited. The author then explains through his usual examples / studies, that the speed / effectiveness of adaptation can be reduced...more

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May 31, 2011 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

My take: Dan Ariely has the coolest job EVER. Best as I can tell, he's a social psychologist. He studies social behavior and creates questionnaires to determine why a person does what s/he does. So he teaches his classes at Duke University, probably wearing his tweed jacket with patches on the elbows, has an idea, presents it to whoever pays for it, writes his hypotheses, makes up a questionnaire, then lures unsuspecting citizens into his lair for experimentation.

I absolutely loved how he used e...more

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May 14, 2011 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another good read from Dr. Ariely; however, I very much more enjoyed his first book (Predictably Irrational) over this one. Maybe I was in a more "critical" frame of mind when reading this, but a couple of the early chapters left me with some questions.

In Chapter 2, he discusses the concept of “contrafreeloading” and uses the example of the rat who, at the sign of a light signal, leaves a “free” bowl of food in favor of the lever that he must push to produce food, as well as his pet parrot, Jean...more Another good read from Dr. Ariely; however, I very much more enjoyed his first book (Predictably Irrational) over this one. Maybe I was in a more "critical" frame of mind when reading this, but a couple of the early chapters left me with some questions.

In Chapter 2, he discusses the concept of “contrafreeloading” and uses the example of the rat who, at the sign of a light signal, leaves a “free” bowl of food in favor of the lever that he must push to produce food, as well as his pet parrot, Jean Paul, who spends hours with her SeekaTreat uncovering food, despite the presence of “free” food.

One thing that I didn’t quite understand (although, of course, I’m most certain that he accounted for it somehow) is how he ruled out the possibility that perhaps the rat was simply trying to maximize its food supply by going after the time-restricted food, knowing that the “free” food wasn’t going anywhere, and that it would therefore have even more food for itself overall once the light goes off again. (Putting myself in the rat’s position, as he suggested in that narrative, led me to exactly that possible train of thought.)

The same question can be posed in the case of Jean Paul—along with the question of how he was able to rule out the additional possibility that perhaps Jean Paul wasn’t primarily after the food (although it was I’m sure a nice side effect for him), but rather was mainly seeking the mental stimulation of the activity during the long boring hours alone.

On another topic, in Chapter 3, he discusses the “Ikea Effect” and the additional value that we place on our own creations. He sets out in the beginning of the chapter to show, among other things, whether or not that value is based on sentimental attachment or on self-delusion. Using the first origami auction, he clearly shows that creators valued their creations more than the passersby, but admittedly, not what caused the disparity in the evaluations.

To that effect, he then went on to the second origami auction, which showed that non-creators valued professional-looking origami at levels similar to creators valuing their own creations, and much higher than non-creators valuing those amateur creations. The conclusion he recounted from that experiment was that “creators had a substantial bias when evaluating their own work” and that “creators saw their own work as almost as good as the experts’ origami”.

Again, it might just be my own lack of understanding, but why is that the logical conclusion—how do those results necessarily rule out sentimental attachment in favor of self-delusion? What was it in that result set that pointed him specifically to self-delusion? Also, after completing the chapter, I was still left perplexed as to where in the chapter (or in the experiments) sentimental attachment was specifically ruled out. Perhaps the inflated values were in fact a result of mere sentimental attachment and the creators were in fact aware of the inferiority of their creations nonetheless?

In any case, it was still an enjoyable read, and I'd still recommend it (although, again, his first book seemed much better to me). Incidentally, I emailed him with these exact questions, so who knows—I might yet get those answers someday!(less)

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Mar 29, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

I thoroughly enjoyed Ariely's previous book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, and this book is excellent as well. There are many "pop-psychology" books on the market these days, but one thing sets this book off from the rest. Rather than simply reporting on the research of others, the author himself conducted the many psychology experiments described in his book. This gives the book an aura of authenticity, because it describes research in the first person. The...more

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Feb 12, 2011 Jonny99 rated it 3 of 5 stars

A peculiar combo of bio and social science. Dan Ariely reports on recent behavioral economics research much in the vein of ”Freakeconomics”. Some of the studies provide interesting insights including the opening chapter on the motivational power, or rather lack thereof, of large bonuses. From there, however, the surprise factor declines with further topics such as research demonstrating that people respond more to individual needs than to mass tragedies. Ariely incorporates a great deal more bio...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Upside of Irrationality is a follow-up book to Predictably Irrational by behavioral psychologist/economist Dan Ariely. This book covers the topics of job bonuses, the meaning of labor, the IKEA effect (overvaluaing what we make), loss aversion, adaptation, online dating, empathy/emotion, and the long-term effects of negative feelings.

These are the things I learned/found interesting.
- There are upsides to less than rational behavior: passions that individuals have for their careers, a mother...more The Upside of Irrationality is a follow-up book to Predictably Irrational by behavioral psychologist/economist Dan Ariely. This book covers the topics of job bonuses, the meaning of labor, the IKEA effect (overvaluaing what we make), loss aversion, adaptation, online dating, empathy/emotion, and the long-term effects of negative feelings.

These are the things I learned/found interesting.
- There are upsides to less than rational behavior: passions that individuals have for their careers, a mother's love, monogamy, recovery from catastrophes.
- In commenting on how scientists are also prone to irrational biases, Ariely writes, "In the scientific world, the Not-Invented-Here bias is fondly called the "toothbrush theory." The idea is that everyone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else's." A great illustration of this is Thomas Edison's antagonism towards AC, rather than, DC current scheme.
- Individuals need to feel ownership of solutions, rather than prescriptions from others. Even superficial/artificial ownership derived from unscrambling a solution that others have given makes the individual more likely to support a solution to a given problem.
- Humans are amazing at adapting. Severely injured people have a much higher pain threshold and pain tolerance than more mildly injured individuals or chronically ill individuals. Ariely attributes this to the psychological association made between pain and betterment during recovery from traumatic injury.
- The now famous study by Philip Brickman, Dan Coates, and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman found that 1 year after the fact, paraplegics, lottery winners, and normal people came back to the same level of life satisfaction.
- The key to prolonging happiness is to take breaks during the process to prevent hedonic adaptation. The key to minimizing the duration of duress is to not take breaks to allow maximal adaptation.
- In dating, an aesthetically limited individual adapts to finding a mate by reconsidering the rank of attributes (ie. I don't like bald men, but I look at other things.), rather than altering perception of aesthetics (I like bald men.) or not adapting (I'll never like bald men. I won't adapt to my position in the dating hierarchy.).
- In the realm of online dating, men are less selective than women (men were 240% more likely to initiate contact). Also, men care more about the hotness of women than vice versa. Men are also more likely to be more hopeful than women (ie. more likely to aim for women out of their league).
- "I think the market for single people is one of the most egregious market failures in Western society."
- More on online dating. People spent an average of 5.2 hrs per week searching profiles and 6.7 hours per week emailing potential partners for a total of nearly 12hrs/week at the screening stage. They spent a mere 1.8 hrs a week actually meeting prospective partners in the real world. This 6:1 inefficiency speaks for itself. And it is not that individuals derived pleasure from the 12hrs/week screening.

Ariely adds a nice touch by weaving in his own personal experience with traumatic pain and in choosing a life partner. The book is insightful and leaves the reader with a confidence in human resolve. The substance of the book are real psychology experiments (many if not all done by Dan Ariely in collaboration with others). The book is well-written and flows well and a good read for the general audience.
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Jan 04, 2011 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: business-and-society

Dan Ariely is one of my favorite non-fiction writers, so I was excited to find out that he'd come out with a new book, The Upside of Irrationality, and frustrated that I had to wait so long for it to be available at my library. But it finally came in, and I tore through it in two or three days.

Following on the heels of Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality charts ways in which we humans are not the rational, careful beings economists tell us we are. Ariely's go...more Dan Ariely is one of my favorite non-fiction writers, so I was excited to find out that he'd come out with a new book, The Upside of Irrationality, and frustrated that I had to wait so long for it to be available at my library. But it finally came in, and I tore through it in two or three days.

Following on the heels of Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality charts ways in which we humans are not the rational, careful beings economists tell us we are. Ariely's goal is twofold: first, to get us to recognize our irrationalities and how they affect our lives, and second, to show us how we can use these irrationalities to help us once we've recognized them.

The first half of the book relates roughly to irrationalities in the work world. The first chapter, "Paying More for Less: Why Big Bonuses Don't Always Work" explains that, contrary to our intuitions and all CEO bonus plans, bigger bonuses don't improve performance for anything other than simple mechanical tasks. It's a topic that's been covered at length by Dan Pink in his book Drive. Other topics I was less familiar with: chapters three and four describe how we value (or even overvalue) objects and ideas when we've made them ourselves. That's why you're so attached to your amateurish IKEA bookshelf or shaky watercolor, or why you're much more likely to endorse an idea when you've thought of it yourself. (Or when you think you've thought of it yourself, as salespeople have known for ages.) In this first section, Ariely also tackles revenge (companies could save a lot of money if they really understood the value of a sincere apology) and meaningful work (even well-compensated people will get depressed if you ignore their work or make it appear useless).

The second half is on relationships, both romantic and otherwise. Ariely first discusses a counter-intuitive finding (which I discovered through Dan Gilbert's Stumbling On Happiness) that people adapt much more effectively to circumstances than they'd expect. Both paraplegics and lottery winners tend to revert to a baseline happiness after a while. So if you want to be happy, space out or interrupt your happy experiences (don't outfit your new apartment all at once, but buy one thing at a time after the thrill of the last one has faded) and plow through your bad experiences all at once (don't take breaks when you're paying taxes, cut your extra budget items all at once).

Also in the second half, Ariely discusses the dating market. He explains why attractive people tend to date other attractive people, but less attractive people tend to value other qualities, like "sense of humor." He also shows how online dating doesn't at all account for human limitations or tendencies. As an experiment: get your friends and acquaintances to describe themselves in the check-box-like manner of dating sites and see if you can figure out, just based on those criteria, which ones you like and which ones you don't. People tend to connect best when they're sharing experiences rather than just talking about themselves.

Ariely also describes how we're much more likely to respond to the concrete need of one person, especially someone close to us, than the abstract need of many. (Compare how much money you'd give to a neighbor with cancer who lost his job compared to millions of kids with malaria in Africa.) He also discusses how our emotions affect our decisions, and how these decisions can impact us long after the emotion has faded away. (Imagine you're in a good mood and bring flowers to your mother-in-law's. The next time you visit, you may bring flowers again, because you've set the precedent. Sadly, this also works for decisions made under the impact of negative emotions.)

All told, I loved this book, as I expected I would. Ariely's a great writer, and I love reading about behavioral economics and human irrationalities. A great read.(less)

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Nov 20, 2010 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is a highly entertaining jaunt through many aspects of human behavior we encounter on a daily basis. It explains experiments from behavioral economics investigating our need to find meaning in our work (we do, even if the meaning is fairly trivial), our experiences of pain (prior experiences of of overcoming significant pain increase our tolerance, while insoluble pain decreases it), the ways we self-herd (emotional priming can lead to decisions that establish pathways of decision-maki...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Dora rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book-- it was a pleasure to read, I zipped right through it and it made me think a lot about the ways human beings sometimes act based on emotion rather than logic.

I loved how, much like Sheena Iyengar's "The Art of Choosing", Dan spoke of his personal experiences and how they influenced what he was interested in studying. I think it's fantastic when academics can write in a personal way, intercontextualizing their own experiences with their research.

Throughout reading this...more I really enjoyed this book-- it was a pleasure to read, I zipped right through it and it made me think a lot about the ways human beings sometimes act based on emotion rather than logic.

I loved how, much like Sheena Iyengar's "The Art of Choosing", Dan spoke of his personal experiences and how they influenced what he was interested in studying. I think it's fantastic when academics can write in a personal way, intercontextualizing their own experiences with their research.

Throughout reading this book I kept turning to Norman to talk about it with him, it really made me think so much, which is why I rated it so highly!

The most compelling chapter for me was about executive compensation (also what caused me to pick up this book to read it). There appears to be no evidence that massively huge bonuses positively impact a CEO's/banker's job performance.

My issues with the book:

1) I felt that the chapter on internet dating was pretty weak and oversimplified. In his study, people reported that they do not like internet dating and thus he deemed it a failure. However, this failed to acknowledge the great success internet dating has been for countless people- perhaps the personal ads sites aren't great, but they can (and clearly have been) a means to an end for many people. I thought it was an interesting discussion of how personal ad dating websites try to boil human beings down to their attributes, which isn't really what draws people to each other- that part of the chapter was great. And so I thought a deeper discussion could have been had about the plethora of other ways people can meet on the internet (livejournal, world of warcraft, etc) that fit into his study about how people actually get to know each other (experiencing things together).

2) often times, a chapter would be sub-titled "why we do X", and then the study itself wouldn't really tell us WHY we did a certain behavior, rather just demonstrate that we *do* that certain behavior, and then he would speculate why.

Otherwise, I loved it.(less)

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Jul 08, 2010 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dan Ariely's previous book on behavioral economics, Predictably Irrational was fantastic. It explored the way that economics work on a personal level when you stop assuming that people are completely irrational and provided a great overview of the many kinks in the human brain that lead us to make weird, suboptimal decisions. His new book, The Upside of Irrationality, flips that coin onto its other side and looks at hour our penchant for irrational decision-making can actually benefit us and mak...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Title: Interesting research, interesting conclusions

If you pick up this book expecting it to be as good as Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational, you are likely to be disappointed. If, however, you approach it without high expectations caused by that first book, you will probably enjoy it quite a bit and pick up some useful and interesting information.

The Upside of Irrationality explores many facets of human behavior at work and at home and how we are all less than optimal in our behavior,...more Title: Interesting research, interesting conclusions

If you pick up this book expecting it to be as good as Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational, you are likely to be disappointed. If, however, you approach it without high expectations caused by that first book, you will probably enjoy it quite a bit and pick up some useful and interesting information.

The Upside of Irrationality explores many facets of human behavior at work and at home and how we are all less than optimal in our behavior, even genius inventor Thomas Edison, who resisted AC current in large part because it was not his idea. It asks some very timely questions, like whether big bonuses really make CEOs more productive (His answer is No.) and how to improve internet dating, and more eternal questions, like the role of revenge in our lives.

The book emphasizes Ariely's own research and its conclusions, an approach that has both advantages and disadvantages. More than the first book, I found myself reflecting that it would desirable to do this or that additional work to try to support a conclusion more fully. Having read the book, I can reflect that perhaps some of this omission is due to the human tendency to overvalue what we make or do ourselves a phenomenon Ariely discusses and acknowledges he shares with the rest of us. Or perhaps it is simply that he has not had time or funding to pursue the work further.

The author also uses himself and his own life frequently as examples of the phenomena he discusses. These are vivid, but the technique may be overdone. In the first chapter Ariely describes a horrific accident he had in his late teens that resulted in his spending several years in the hospital and causes him pain and some disability even today. He uses this aspect of his life so frequently that I sometimes wondered if the use of the material was more for examples or for personal therapy.

The title and subtitle of the book are a bit misleading. The bulk of the conclusions in The Upside of Irrationality seem not so much irrational as counter-intuitive. For example, one of my favorite chapters is about adaptation, the human trait that enables us to get used to just about anything, good or bad. If we do something we enjoy, our pleasure increases for a while, but after a time our enjoyment tends to lessen. The same is true of painful or annoying experiences. The curve looks rather like an upside down U. If we stop and begin again, we will experience the same U-curve of pleasure or pain/annoyance. The lesson to draw from that result is that, contrary to human tendency, we should not take on an unpleasant chore “in pieces” but do it in one pass. This will reduce our sum total of negative experience. On the other hand, we should break up our positive experiences to maximize our enjoyment, e.g., we really WILL enjoy that piece of pie more if we cut it into smaller pieces and save one for tomorrow (as long as our spouse doesn't eat it first!).

In addition, although the subtitle of the book is “the unexpected benefits of defying logic at work and at home”, I finished several chapters wondering what benefits were conferred by the illogical behavior.

In sum, despite the flaws I have noted, the upside of The Upside of Irrationality is its fascinating look at many aspects of human behavior. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in why we do what we do and how that can cause us to make bad decisions.(less)

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Jul 29, 2010 Miguel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely not "The Myth of Sisyphus" nor does it pretend to be. The main attraction of Ariely's books is Ariely himself. He is sort of a cuddly pop Montaigne who writes his persona constantly into the text. The author-persona --a self-deprecating, humorous Israeli-American academic who suffered a terrible accident in his youth-- weaves himself into the the different chapters about topics as diverse as the effectiveness of large bonuses to achieve better performance, revenge as a motivat...more This is definitely not "The Myth of Sisyphus" nor does it pretend to be. The main attraction of Ariely's books is Ariely himself. He is sort of a cuddly pop Montaigne who writes his persona constantly into the text. The author-persona --a self-deprecating, humorous Israeli-American academic who suffered a terrible accident in his youth-- weaves himself into the the different chapters about topics as diverse as the effectiveness of large bonuses to achieve better performance, revenge as a motivator in client-company interactions or our irrational affection toward objects we assemble ourselves.

I am a layman who is a fan of behavioral economics, so Ariely is preaching to the converted and I am therefore inclined to give a positive rating, although sometimes the fluffiness of a book that can be read in under five or six hours makes you long for such a brilliant author to wade into slightly more controversial territory or for his "author-character" to become a little more provocative. For example, the chapter on bonuses proves conclusively that higher stakes in many contexts can produce markedly worse performances. Fine. Point taken. But it is massively disingenuous to say that perhaps investment banks can avoid mega-catastrophes such as the 2008 meltdown by parceling out bonuses over a number of years or simply tucking them inside base compensation. The people who packaged, sold and bought mortgages as CDOs did not screw up because of anxiety induced by large bonuses. Many did so either cynically knowing these monstrosities would eventually blow up or simply not caring as long as fees rolled in. And Ariely knows it, but both his style and his content peddle "behavior-ec" as an ingenious quick-fix for human frailty when some of the issues he discusses actually deal with much thornier issues. In the bonus case, the real issue is whether the search for short-term gain by a handful of individuals in some organizations can lead to long-term damage to society at large. This in turn requires the discussion of big, non-fluffy issues such as the effects of government regulation that cannot be resolved in nifty 15-page chapters. And this is the sort of "heavy" stuff you will definitely not find in this type of book. (less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: decision-making-planning, economics-human-behavior

Although I have read most of the human behaviors described in this book, I enjoyed the presentation and story-telling method enormously. A great companion to Dan Ariely's earlier work - Predictably Irrational. While the former primarily focuses on the negative aspects of human irrationality, the Upside of Irrationality primarily focuses on the positive aspects (mostly...). Dan explains a variety of emotionally based effects (my words) that impact how we decide, respond, think about all sorts of...more

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Jul 04, 2010 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, disappointing

I had a sufficiently positive impression of Dan Ariely from his first book, Predictably Irrational, to be willing to give this one a try. My residual impression from the earlier book was of a smart, likable guy, with a knack for designing clever experiments to capture the irrational side of human behavior, particularly when making decisions with economic consequences. This area of investigation has risen to prominence over the past 5 to 10 years, there is now a flood of titles on the market, whi...more I had a sufficiently positive impression of Dan Ariely from his first book, Predictably Irrational, to be willing to give this one a try. My residual impression from the earlier book was of a smart, likable guy, with a knack for designing clever experiments to capture the irrational side of human behavior, particularly when making decisions with economic consequences. This area of investigation has risen to prominence over the past 5 to 10 years, there is now a flood of titles on the market, which shows no sign of abating in the foreseeable future. Predictably Irrational holds up well against the competition: it covers a lot of ground in reasonably concise fashion, and is quite readable. Each chapter's primary message is grounded in, and illustrated by, specific experiments conducted by Ariely and colleagues, and this is the book's particular strength.

Given the strength of Ariely's first book, and the relatively short interval since its publication, it would be truly surprising if this second book reached the same high standard. "Sophomore slump" is a real phenomenon (just a manifestation of what statisticians would call "regression to the mean") and Professor Ariely is not immune to its effects. A reviewer predisposed to be critical of the author might argue that this is a sequel that is short on substance, presenting results that are either
(i) blindingly obvious (e.g. that people need to believe their work is meaningful to feel motivated),
(ii) needless and not particularly illuminating amplification of ideas already presented in the first book (overvaluing of ownership and the power of anchoring),or,
(iii)material presented previously, and better, by other authors.

That assessment seems unduly harsh to me - the sequel shares some of the positive qualities of the original - primarily Ariely's clear and engaging style, which guarantees readability at the very least. Unfortunately, an engaging style doesn't quite make up for some of the book's obvious weaknesses. The material in the earlier book was fascinating because most of the results were surprising -- counterintuitive or non-obvious -- but the experimental work was strong enough to be persuasive. The experimental foundation of the work discussed in the second book is noticeably weaker across the board, at times barely rising about the level of anecdotal data, with the author displaying a regrettable propensity to issue pronouncements of a general nature solely on the basis of his own personal experience. Even if one disregards the relative weakness of the empirical evidence to support them, claims made in the second book are simply not as interesting as the earlier work - either they are immediately obvious, or restatements of material likely to be familiar to anyone who has done any prior reading in this general area.

Finally, there is the unavoidable impression that a significant portion of the material is nothing more than padding (the book is studded with space-filling sidebars that are notably lacking in content: examples include a one-page explanation of the myth of Sisyphus, complete with stick-figure diagram, a verbatim transcript of an online rant about the 2008 banking bailout, graphs that were superfluous, cartoonish, or both). The most egregious padding is Ariely's inclusion of what seems like an endless stream of personal anecdotes from his own life, a feature that severely tests the reader's patience and is an implicit acknowledgement that this is a book based primarily on anecdotal evidence, rather than hard science.

With these caveats in mind, I quite enjoyed the book. But I can't give it a resounding endorsement. Instead, I would steer readers to:
Predictably Irrational , Stumbling on Happiness and Nudge . Cumulatively they afford an accessible account of the same material that is more thorough and more rigorous than that in Professor Ariely's somewhat disappointing sophomore effort.

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Jun 22, 2010 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: behavioural-economics

It is possible that I give far too many books five stars. Oh well.

There is a lovely bit in Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined Americawhere Barbara is at a conference of those who would have us wear badges with smiley-faces stuck in our lapels were they discussed if 'Positive Thinking' might not be a brand that has a bit of a smell about it. Time to rebrand, perhaps? Re-branding is, after all, the solution to all of the worlds ills (why they haven't cha...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Olga rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 30, 2013 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, psychology

Somehow I found this book not quite as compelling as Ariely's first book, PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL, but I don't know if that's because the book is actually not as good or just because I'm much more familiar with the field and have read more of the work he cites (thanks to graduate school), so the ideas don't seem as novel (though they're still as exciting) to me as they were when I read the first one. I like the way this book is structured compared to the first one, though. I also noticed that Ari...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Andy Wilkins rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy this as much as Predictably Irrational. Firstly, the title is poorly chosen, as only in the conclusion does the author address it but mostly the book describes the negative consequences of our irrationality. Also the hypotheses seem a more little obvious than before (e.g. it's not good to break when doing something unpleasant) and I was left wondering whether they needed such extensive research to support them. Also, I can't agree with his findings in the chapter about high-rankin...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Kenny Tang added it

Behavioral economics book. Not quite as awesome as the first one "Predictably Irrational", and completely forgettable. Just continues on with the subject matter some more but it does feel as if all the good stuff was used up in the first one and this is the leftover rejects. There's also no "Upside" that I took away from this book. it's not like it was "How to use people's irrational behavior to your advantage" or "Because people do irrational action A, do this such that desired action will resu...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Chad Abunassar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ariely's "the upside of irrationaility" is a gem of a book. While filled with Malcom Gladwell-esque observations and commentary, there's also a terrific personal aspect to it. Underneath his analysis and interesting case by case descriptions of peoples' behavior, He also tells of his own personal story and perseverance after enduring life-threatening burns to much of his body. He provides perspective on the resilience of people and is actually quite inspiring and convincing. I was experiencing s...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Taka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japan_jul07-aug10, social-science

Good!

Deeply personal than his previous work, this book explores more about the irrational side of human beings at the same time reveals much about the author behind the work.

The first two chapters deal with the relationship between performance and reward, and the meaning of work - topics more comprehensively covered in Daniel Pink's excellent book, Drive, Chapter 9 ("On Empathy and Emotion") in Dan and Chip Heath's Made to Stick and so I didn't learn much from them, but the rest of the book was...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Marion rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's always enjoyable to read academics who have not fallen into the dry pit of hard data and motorway-length sentences. Ariely is a brilliant storyteller (and a brave one at that, given the field) and he certainly has a distinguishable voice, but the book ever so acutely lacks the intensity of its predecessor - the one of richness and scope. When reminders and short summaries should work as memory aids at the end of (longer) chapters or topics covered, they seem to have an opposite effect in he...more

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