Analysis of Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

1. In the first chapter of Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, it talks about dealing with societal mores, economic incentives, and cheating. With schoolteachers, the possibility of getting a pay raise and the grades their students get on standardized tests are some of the incentives that derive them to cheat. In the book, Levitt explains how he examines sets of answers to these tests and tries to see a pattern if teachers were changing answers for their students. Dubner and Levitt, both incorporate samples of these scored tests and have the readers try and find the cheating detected on there. “Teacher cheating is rarely looked for, hardly ever detected, and just about never punished.” (Levitt and Dubner 24) The incentives for teachers are to be more recognized and a chance to get a better pay while, for sumo wrestlers, they can move up a rank. The only difference is that for sumo wrestlers, they never got caught because in Japan, they assume they are always telling the truth and never lying, while for teachers, some lost their jobs because they were caught. “Cheating is a primordial economic act: getting more for less.” (Levitt and Dubner 21) Cheating is something I have witnessed multiple of times while being in school. There were students who would help and talk during tests to get better grades on the exam since the teacher wasn’t paying attention to the class when we took the test. At the end of it all, they did get away with it and the reason

This book explores the psychology L Ron Hubbard believed in. In brief, he argues that we have an analytical mind and a reactive mind – the analytical mind being the source behind our logic, and the reactive mind being the part of us that contains memories, making us react illogically to certain things. None of this is accepted by mainstream

The complexity of human emotions has been an unsolvable conundrum that has plagued the minds of philosophers for hundreds of years. In fact, to this day, philosophers still feverishly debate the various components of emotions. Whether it is the origins of emotions or the effect on the human body that emotions have, actual facts and proven theories about emotions are impossible to one hundred percent be verified. One emotion that is particularly complex and powerful is the emotion of fear. For example, there are times when an individual is totally paralyzed and unable to move purely because of the fact that the individual

“ Bacon is explaining that humans are subjected to emotions and refuse to accept things that go against their beliefs even if evidence is provided stating otherwise (885-885). Both Plato and Bacon recognize the role of free will and emotions in human lives and

Anthony Damasio’s: Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain introduces the reader to the interesting world of emotions. Before reading this book, one probably did not pay much attention to the science and philosophy behind emotion. In fact, few people would likely be able to properly describe and define emotion. Damasio, though, demonstrates that emotions are central to the life-regulating processes of almost all living creatures. Damásio presents the” somatic-marker hypothesis” a proposed mechanism by which emotions guide behavior and decision-making, and positing that rationality requires emotional input.

The profound author of Predictably Irrational is Dan Ariely. When Ariely was a young eighteen year old Israeli boy, he suffered serious injuries due to an explosion. Tragically, 70% of his body was covered in third degree burns (xiii). Due to this tragic accident, Ariely became accustomed to an unnatural viewpoint in economics. The daily “bath” that the nurses gave Ariely made him experience a great deal of irrational fears that were persistent and life-changing. Once his wounds had healed, Ariely then sought out to grasp a better understanding of how to better treat patients so that they did not have to experience the irrational fears that Ariely overcame. This allowed him to begin his field of research, leading to the creation of this intellectually profound book.

Daniel Kahneman’s aim in this book is to make psychology, perception easy for the people to grasp. This book is mainly discussing the issues related to the assumptions, we human’s make without thinking through carefully. Daniel really does a great job discussing the problems due to human irrationality.

The relationship the author created with the readers was a great connection with them since the readers could perfectly identify with everything the author was stating. He wanted college student to realize that they are being affected by stress in a negative manner by making all the connections. One of the examples in the article is, “Students need to realize that these negative things are normal, but should be temporary.” With this many of the readers could reflect about how they are affected by the issue. The author’s main argument is to manage stress in college appropriately and to not let it control our daily lives. We shouldn’t let it overpower our lives since it can impact us in a negative manner by affecting our health. The author did tackle the right group, his message was directly stated to college students. He is assuming on his article that all colleges students have gone through stress. Even though he is assuming that the audience is pretty familiarized with his topic he does take the time to explain a little more in-depth issues that might cause stress. By explaining and giving examples on how students can be stressed, he is giving an effective information to his audience. The message is directly targeted to the right audience, he made this possible because it was directly stated to his specific audience which was

"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely is one of my all-time favorite books; as it shows parts of the human's behavioral patterns(primarily decision-making) and why we make the decisions we make, in a new perspective while introducing fresh, shocking yet true facts about us. A lot of the time we think that we opt for the rational choice while in reality many of our choices couldn't be more irrational and emotional. The book contains many points but for the sake of being brief, I'll discus one, which is why a cheap aspirin can never do what a more expensive one can.

There are some human phenomena, which seem to be the result of individual actions and personal decisions. Yet, these phenomena are often - on closer inspection –

Creating a relationship between the text and the readers, he is able to describe things by helping a reader visualize what is happening with Children in the school system. However, it is confusing when trying to figure out who the audience is intended to be. The audience could possibly be his fellow teachers, parents of students, the school board, or government officials. Also, his writing style is absorbing and entertaining, he explains his essay and presents his ideas and options tremendously well. He compares his ideas of why school is bad and contrasts to these ideas when he begins to explain the solution to the

chance, and the irrational emerging in conflict with the political systems and climate that saw the

(21) Ariely is quick to identify the main problem in each chapter, for instance he writes “[relativity] can also make us downright miserable,”(15) and he is clear and concise when presenting the results of his experiments to support his claims. Ariely is bold when stating the flaws in human logic and stuns the readers with his findings. With his readers thoroughly engaged, Ariely then guides his readers through a series of comprehensible but scientific experiments and ultimately brings the readers to the same conclusions he previously announced. The contrast between the author’s blatant statements and detailed explanations renders Predictably Irrational a stunning and engaging

David Hume asserts that the grounds upon which connections between causes and effects are established are not rooted in reason. Hume argues that while reason does play a large role in understanding rational relations of ideas, the same principles cannot apply to matters of fact. He justifies this claim with the fact that the associations we make between cause and effect are the result of constant conjunction and habituation. He also stresses the irrationality of the principle of uniformity of nature, which is a key principle of making connections between causes and effects. Although the observations of the nature of ideas surrounding cause and effect are sound, the conclusions of irrationality seem far stretched. He hastily throws around the label of “irrational”, and does not consider that perhaps lacking rationality in the classical sense is not necessarily conducive to being driven without reason.

Thomas, 2015). The model proposes that adverse activating events (A) can be either a situation or a feeling that one responds to. The (B) refers to rational or irrational beliefs that one holds regarding the activating event. The beliefs then causes one to have emotional, behavioral, and cognitive consequences (David et al., 2005). Ellis proposes that the beliefs (B) about the activating events (A) determine the emotional and behavioral reactions or responses (C). REBT proposes that when a person’s beliefs about an adverse situation are rational, then the individual expression of negative emotions and behaviors will be appropriate and healthy (Fong Chan & Kenneth R. Thomas, 2015). In comparison, when people have irrational beliefs such as thinking in terms of absolute imperatives- shoulds, oughts, and musts about the activating events, then their emotional and behavioral responses to the activating events are also distorted. REBT then seeks to actively dispute irrational thought (D), and later help individuals to assimilate more efficient adaptive rational thoughts (E). The D and E process, then causes an impact on the emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses of the individuals (David et al.,