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Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational is an entertaining effort to raise your awareness of how your mind works and in particular how the workings of the human mind can be used by savvy marketeers. As a group humans have habits in their thinking and in the decision-making processes which can be used to incline those humans in certain directions.

Before going further it is important that we understand something about science. When an new study comes out stating that there is a statistically significant relationship between (for example) the colors and font sizes used in product packaging and customer buying decisions that is a highly conditional statement. First the results of a single study are not the same as established science. Findings must be replicated and a variety of alternate studies are needed to confirm or deny the relationship. Once study findings represent a consensus opinion it is understood that this relationship is not absolute in all cases for all individuals. It is understood that this relationship only describes some portion of consumer activity and that portion in some situations. Example: giant sharp edged red colored fonts may help create excitement and purchasing activity in a toy store but turn people off in the over-the-counter medicine section.

Even where the relationship is scientifically upheld and applied in the most optimal situations it may only make a difference of a few percentage points in sales. In other words you may not think a particular study is true because of something you believe about yourself or have seen in others but that does not change the fact that the proper application of these kinds of studies produce enough changes in sales that very savvy bottom line oriented, hard-nosed business people willingly pay large amounts to isolate what may seem like marginal changes in their cash flow.

This book may not change your attitude towards the "study of the day" nor will it necessarily change your shopping habits. Its value lies in giving you specific examples of how market research can isolate human tendencies and turn those kinds of innate preferences into actions.

To choose a specific example from early in the book most humans have no innate ability to place an absolute value on anything. In given a choice between alternatives the typical human reaction is to engage in a set of comparisons. We do not know in any meaningful sense what a particular item or service is actually worth. Most often the word "worth" carries no meaning. We derive our sense of worth as applied to that item in terms of our past experience with similar items, how much we think we need or want that item, and how that item is portrayed. Somewhere in this is the question what can we afford but again what we can afford is related to what is that you attach to that item.

A very specific example of this property relates to the history of black pearls. Going straight to the bottom line of this history; the first time a black pearls were placed in the marketplace they failed. They were later introduced to the marketplace surrounded by highly valuable gemstones and jewelry creating a sense that these were rare and precious jewelry items. Suddenly black pearls were valued in the marketplace and sold for a great deal of money.

Predictably Irrational is one of a long line of books speaking to the general reader about how human decisions can be influenced by those who understand the human mind. Some of what is in this book represents new research, or at least new research as of 2008 - my edition. However some of what is in this book represents what reads like casual studies conducted by Prof. Ariely with some of his students or by some of his friends in the related fields of study. My problem with these more casual studies is that they are illustrative of some of the points being made but do not always seem to fit well with the point being made. This is a relative weakness and forgivable because some of the things he has done are elegant in their simplicity and fun to read. Even if a particular example is not conclusive it is fun to read about how relatively easy experiments can demonstrate powerful principles. The professor manages to demonstrate a number of points with little more than a few chocolates in the campus of hungry students.

The competition for your money is fierce. Some of the tricks used to influence your buying decisions do not cross the threshold into being unfair or dishonest. The point in this book is that if you are more aware of how your own mind works, and how that may work against you, or you can be a more aware and better prepared buyer. This is not a great conspiracy theory type book but rather an entertaining read that can help make you more conscious of your decisions.