About AMA

Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational, is a user-friendly introduction to principles of behavioral economics and the arguable inadequacies of the traditional “economic man” assumption. In that sense, it provides an excellent opportunity for marketing educators to challenge students to reflect on the veracity of many long-held tenets of consumption and market behavior. Pedagogically, the greatest contribution of Ariely’s book stems more from the method of its delivery than from the content of the message itself. Specifically, Ariely embeds details of hypothesis development and experimental design in stories that expose the uninitiated reader to the important interplay of scientific method and the advancement of academic thought and theory. Although the rigor of the experiments and robustness of the conclusions are at times questionable, the end product provides marketing educators with an interesting vehicle to engage students in higher levels of reflective thinking and learning.

Ariely’s writing style demonstrates a consciousness and understanding of what draws people into a story. He opens the book with a highly engrossing recounting of his personal experiences with pain as a burn victim and the subsequent impetus for studies of irrationality. This introduction conveys a sincerity of purpose to Ariely’s research interests, which increases his trustworthiness and subsequent credibility as a researcher to the reader. He further builds on this strength by recounting details of experiments in such a way that encourages the reader to visualize his or her own participation in the experience. In particular, the studies on relativity, arousal, procrastination, and dishonesty are likely personally relevant to many undergraduate students and, as such, provide more involving vehicles to stimulate higher level learning (e.g., personal reflection, critical thinking).

I emphasize the value of this book to undergraduate consumer behavior education because few popular publications exist that are written engagingly but are still able to encourage more than simple knowledge and comprehension of the latest buzz words or industry trends. Predictably Irrational exposes learners to a broad spectrum of fundamental consumer behavior principles and goes one step further to invite reflection and critical thought about the robustness of original theories and assumptions. Beyond introduction of fundamental behavioral economics concepts and issues (e.g., framing, loss aversion, priming), the book also provides instructors with an opportunity to explore topics often underrepresented in typical consumer behavior texts. The discussion of market norms and social norms provides an excellent avenue to explore evolving discussions of marketing’s role and responsibilities in anticonsumption. Similarly, many provocative ethical issues are raised by juxtaposing the use of behavioral economic principles in profit and nonprofit settings. For example, is the ethics of using knowledge of irrational behaviors any different when such knowledge is applied to respond to social problems as opposed to market challenges? Is implementing a system of nonrefundable deposits on medical procedures similar to policies used by airline companies? Is it any more/less offensive to induce high levels of arousal to stimulate purchase decisions the consumer might not otherwise support than to use of placebos to advance health care or the imposition of arbitrary deadlines to stimulate student work ethic? These and other questions will likely enter into class discussions of the material and will greatly enhance students’ understanding of marketing and its role in society.

The book is not without its flaws. Many of the experiments clearly oversimplify the variable relationships, and yet Ariely uses them to make grandiose generalizations about the irrationality of consumers. Consider the beer selection experiment used to substantiate evidence of consumer’s irrational conformity/nonconformity tendencies. The researchers in no way control for patrons’ beer knowledge and/or predilections (e.g., a preference for or awareness of ales versus lagers). Similarly, the “test subjects” are given no information about the taste/quality of the alternative beers. Given the lack of any substantive choice cues, it seems reasonable that the consumer looks for surrogate indicators of quality (e.g., price) or, in this case, may use suboptimal decision rules to arrive at a choice (e.g., select an alternate beer from that chosen by a peer). Other examples, such as the discussion exploring people’s tendencies to buy more house than is needed as a function of the proceeds of a previous house sale, similarly fail to recognize obvious variables that might explain the perceived irrationality (e.g., capital gains tax laws). Still, even these inadequacies present excellent learning opportunities for undergraduate students to critique experimental designs and consider spurious relationships. Such introductory discussions provide a good segue to assignments requiring more advanced reading and study of Ariely’s end-of-chapter resources.

As mentioned previously, much of the draw for the undergraduate audience lies in their ability to empathize with the players and context of the stories presented. In this sense, discussions of simple experiments seem preferable for undergraduate students compared with more typical anecdotal approaches used in alternative popular press business books (e.g., Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking [Gladwell 2005]; Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior [Brafman and Brafman 2008]). The same cannot be said for graduate students with considerable management experience. Seasoned managers will more likely react negatively to the artificiality of the experiments and fixate on these stories as further evidence of academia’s detachment from the realities of the marketplace. Accordingly, I strongly advise the book should be considered only as a supplement to undergraduate studies.

In sum, Predictably Irrational exemplifies the important interplay among purpose-driven research, intellectual curiosity, falsification of theory, and the advancement of marketing knowledge. Although it is arguably overly reductive to be of much use in the graduate classroom, it provides significant advantages to undergraduate curriculum. The real pedagogical value of the book lies in the author’s ability to tell a story that personally involves the student and simultaneously challenges him or her to add a chapter to the story based on personal reflection and cognitive reasoning.

—Elise Pookie Sautter, New Mexico State University

REFERENCES

Brafman, Rom and Ori Brafman (2008), Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. New York: Doubleday.

Gladwell, Malcolm (2005), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Co.