Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions Quotes
"What consumers are willing to pay can easily be manipulated, and this means that consumers don't in fact have a good handle on their own preferences and the prices they are willing to pay for different goods and experiences."
"The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon'd."
"Our irrationality happens the same way, again and again."
"We don't know what we want unless they see it in context."
"Once the old choices are reconsidered, we can open ourselves to new decisions—and the new opportunities of a new day."
"First impressions are important, whether they involve remembering that our first DVD player cost much more than such players cost today."
"In order to make a man covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."
"Once we become the first person in line at the restaurant, we begin to line up behind ourself in subsequent experiences."
"If Tom had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
"If we were truly rational, then policies should take this important factor into account."
"Zero is not just another price, it turns out. Zero is an emotional hot button—a source of irrational excitement."
"FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is."
"Once market norms enter our considerations, the social norms depart."
"The difference between two cents and one cent is small. But the difference between one cent and zero is huge!"
"When a social norm collides with a market norm, the social norm goes away for a long time."
"Money, as it turns out, is very often the most expensive way to motivate people."
"Social norms are not only cheaper, but often more effective as well."
"The real allure of FREE! is tied to this fear. There's no visible possibility of loss when we choose a FREE! item."
"The fact that we live in both the social world and the market world has many implications for our personal lives."
"Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination."
"Delaying the deadlines to the end was clearly the best decision if students were perfectly rational."
"If given the right opportunities they try to control themselves—but the main question is whether the tool was indeed helpful in improving their grades."
"Tightly restricting their freedom is the best cure for procrastination."
"People may set deadlines for themselves, but not necessarily the deadlines that are best for getting the best performance."
"Those who recognize and admit their weakness are in a better position to utilize available tools for precommitment."
"Resisting temptation and instilling self-control are general human goals, and repeatedly failing to achieve them is a source of much of our misery."
"Without precommitments, we keep on falling for temptation."
"We have problems with self-control, related to immediate and delayed gratification."
"What's the bottom line? We have problems with self-control, related to immediate and delayed gratification—no doubt there."
"When the doors of opportunity are left open, they are an invitation to seize the potential within."
"When stripping away our preconceptions and previous knowledge is not possible, we should at least acknowledge that we are all biased."
"Exploring the placebo effect, we'll see not only that beliefs and expectations affect how we perceive and interpret sensory phenomena but also that our expectations can alter our subjective and even objective experiences."
"Placebos are effective because people believe in them."
"The truth is that placebos run on the power of suggestion."
"Even a doctor's enthusiasm for a particular treatment or procedure may predispose us toward a positive outcome."
"Once given the opportunity, many honest people will cheat. In fact, the majority of people cheated, and they cheated just a little bit."
"Honesty is something bigger—something considered a moral virtue in nearly every society."
"Without the superego's help, the only defense we have against small transgressions is a rational cost-benefit analysis."
"When we are removed from any benchmarks of ethical thought, we tend to stray into dishonesty."
"When given a chance to cheat with non-monetary objects, cheating is a lot easier than when dealing with money."
"We all make the same types of mistakes over and over, because of the basic wiring of our brains."
"Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless—they are systematic and predictable."
"If we all make systematic mistakes in our decisions, then why not develop new strategies, tools, and methods to help us make better decisions and improve our overall well-being?"
"Getting people to order anonymously is most likely the cheapest and simplest way to increase the enjoyment derived from these experiences."
"Wouldn't economics make a lot more sense if it were based on how people actually behave, instead of how they should behave?"
"These mistakes also provide opportunities for improvement."
"Think how hard physics would be if particles could think."
"Being swayed by what other people choose might lead you to choose a worse alternative."
"We are pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend."