Darren brought this one up almost as an aside while making a point about political polling psychology, but the recommendation itself stands on its own two feet: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, written by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (an MIT-affiliated professor when the book came out in 2008, now at Duke). Darren’s pitch — “if you’re interested at all in how people think and why they do what they do, it is a great book” — came with two specific examples he still remembers years later: The Economist’s old three-tier pricing page (print for $95, web-only for a different price, or print-plus-web for the same $95 as print alone), a deliberately absurd option that exists purely to make the print-plus-web bundle look like the obvious deal; and the classic restaurant-menu trick where the second-most-expensive dish, not the priciest one, is usually the one making the house the most money, because diners steer themselves there to avoid looking extravagant. Darren says he’s gone back and skimmed the book “a few different times” — not a one-time read, a keeper.
You can get this book on Amazon.
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