7DRAKE discussion

Predictably irrational written by Dan Ariely is about how decisions that we make that we people make everyday are irrational and they still occur all the time. One example is how w3e make decisions on things we want. Suppose there are 3 apples in front of you and you could have one, 2 were granny smith, but one had a bruise on it and one was honey crisp. Most likely a person would get the “good” granny smith because they could compare it to the bad one. So they know it is at least better than that .In England, some wealthy gentleman drive a four person coach in the country for a great price for the privilege but when offered to get paid for the same activity, they would refuse it simply because it turned into work. The price of free, people perceive purchases for a what they loss more so than what they gain. So free has no risk, so people perceive the value to be much higher than what they really receive. Amazon introduced super saving shipping everywhere but the French division, which allowed for free shipping. With this discount sales increased significantly; France who charged twenty cents did not receive this. When the French division introduced this they received the same sales increase which shows that just because it was free, and only was a twenty cents difference, free intrigues people and makes them go out of there way for “free things”.
I overall enjoyed this book because it was very enlightening to how people make decisions and why irrational decisions occur. Also the author includes himself into the book on a few experiments and observations to add a different perspective on the concepts he introduces. The book also warned me about how free is not always better and how it has luring effects. This is a fairly simple read with about 20 pages of notes and gives the people who helped him credit and recognizes their presence. I did not like the fact that he added a lot of “fluff” or “filler” in his book. He could have cut the book in half if he were to cut all the fluff. With all of this into consideration I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.