The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home »

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, with appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Department of Economics. He is also the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight and a visiting professor at MIT's Media Lab. Over the years he has won numerous scientific awards. Dan wrote this book while he was a fellow at the Institute for Advance Study at Princeton.

The provocative follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational

• Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive?
• How can confusing directions actually help us?
• Why is revenge so important to us?
• Why is there such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy?

In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more.

Drawing on the same experimental methods that made Predictably Irrational one of the most talked-about bestsellers of the past few years, Ariely uses data from his own original and entertaining experiments to draw arresting conclusions about how and why we behave the way we do. From our office attitudes, to our romantic relationships, to our search for purpose in life, Ariely explains how to break through our negative patterns of thought and behavior to make better decisions. The Upside of Irrationality will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light.

The New York Times - Kyla Dunn

As in his previous book, the best-selling Predictably Irrational, the experiments Ariely describes generate entertaining and often counterintuitive insights…deciding how to apply [these] insights is a pleasure that lingers long after the book is finished.

Introduction Lessons from Procrastination and Medical Side Effects 1

Hepatitis and procrastination

The movie treatment

What we should do and behavioral economics

From food to incompatible design

Taking irrationality into account

Part I THE UNEXPECTED WAYS WE DEFY LOGIC AT WORK

Chapter 1 Paying More for Less: Why Big Bonuses Don't Always Work 17

Of mice and men, or how high stakes affect rats and bankers

Measuring the effects of a CEO-sized bonus in India

Loss aversion: why bonuses aren't really bonuses

Working under stress: just how clutch are "clutch" NBA players?

Stage fright and the social side of high stakes

Making compensation work for society

Chapter 2 The Meaning of Labor: What Legos Can Teach Us about the Joy of Work 53

You are what you do: identity and labor

The pains of wasted work

Lessons from a parrot---and some hungry rats

Searching for meaning while playing with Legos

Making work matter again

Chapter 3 The IKEA Effect: Why We Overvalue What We Make 83

Why IKEA makes us blush (with pride)

Cooking lessons: finding a balance between just adding water and baking an apple pie from scratch

The real value of a thousand origami cranes (and frogs)

Customize it!

Why "almost done" doesn't do much for us

Why we need labors of love

Chapter 4 The Not-Invented-Here Bias: Why "My" Ideas Are Better than "Yours" 107

Mark Twain describes a universal form of stupidity

"Anything you can do I can do better": why we favor our own ideas

The toothbrush theory

What we can learn from Edison's mistake 7

Chapter 5 The Case for Revenge: What Makes Us Seek Justice? 123

The joys of payback

The bailouts and pounds of flesh

One man's quest for revenge against Audi

The etiquette of revenge

Companies beware: when consumers go public

Uses and misuses of revenge

Making amends

Part II THE UNEXPECTED WAYS WE DEFY LOGIC AT HOME

Chapter 6 On Adaptation: Why We Get Used to Things (but Not All Things, and Not Always) 157

Frogs: to boil or not to boil?

Adapting to visual cues and pain thresholds

Hedonic adaptation: from houses to spouses and beyond

How the hedonic treadmill keeps us buying---and buying more

How we can break and enhance adaptation

Making our adaptability work for us

Chapter 7 Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market 191

A personal adaptation

When mind and body don't get along

Sticking to our own (more or less hot) kind in dating: do we settle or adapt?

Let's ask the Internet: dating sites and romantic criteria

How I met your mother

Chapter 8 When a Market Fails: An Example from Online Dating 213

The function of the yenta

The dysfunctional singles market (as if you didn't already know)

The difference between your date and a digital camera

An exemplary failure in dating

How dating sites skew our perceptions

Ideas for a better dating future

Chapter 9 On Empathy and Emotion: Why We Respond to One Person Who Needs Help but Not to Many 237

Baby Jessica versus the Rwandan genocide

The difference between an individual and a statistic

Identification: needed for more than buying beer

How the American Cancer Society reels us in

The effect of rational thinking on giving

Overcoming our inability to confront big problems

Chapter 10 The Long-Term Effects of Short-Term Emotions: Why We Shouldn't Act on Our Negative Feelings 257

Don't tread on me: my colleague learns a lesson about rudeness

The dark side of impulses

Deciding under the influence (of emotions)

The importance of "irrelevant" emotions

What a canoe can tell you about your love life

Chapter 11 Lessons from Our Irrationalities: Why We Need to Test Everything 281

A decision about life and limb

Gideon's biblical empiricism

The wisdom of leeches

Lessons learned, hopefully

Thanks 297

List of Collaborators 299

Notes 305

Bibliography and Additional Readings 307

Index 319