Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition
One book, placed in its field — what Dan Ariely's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · get2great.com/guides/profile-predictably_irrational_revised_and_expanded_edition
Arrow keys or swipe to move · N for notes · F for full screen
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition
One book, placed in its field — what Dan Ariely's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · get2great.com/guides/profile-predictably_irrational_revised_and_expanded_edition
The problem
Suboptimal Choice and Behavior erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Relative Comparison Framing
- 02Price Anchor
- 03Zero Price Framing
- 04Social versus Market Norm Cue
- 05Emotional Arousal State
- 06Ownership Attachment
- 07Expectation Set
- 08Price as Quality Signal
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Relative Comparison Framing
Add a slightly inferior version of your target option — the asymmetric decoy — to raise its chosen share without changing its price.
Misconception
Practitioners believe people evaluate an option on its own merits and that adding a clearly inferior option to the menu is wasted shelf space.
Reality
People rarely judge absolute worth; they judge against whatever is easiest to compare. A dominated decoy that no one chooses can still lift purchases of the option that dominates it, because it hands the mind a clean comparison it can win.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Price Anchor
Set the anchor intentionally at first exposure, since early buyers' reference prices persist and drift toward internal consistency (arbitrary coherence).
Misconception
Practitioners assume willingness to pay reflects a stable internal sense of what a product is worth, so a launch price merely reveals demand rather than creating it.
Reality
The first price a person considers imprints and then breeds coherence: subsequent choices stay consistent with that arbitrary starting point even when it was random. Preferences are constructed at the moment of first exposure, not retrieved from a fixed valuation.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · Zero Price Framing
Dropping a price from one cent to zero produces a jump in demand out of all proportion to the penny difference.
Misconception
Practitioners treat FREE as simply the lowest point on the price scale — a very aggressive discount whose pull is proportional to the money saved.
Reality
Zero is a category shift, not a smaller number. Free removes the perceived downside entirely, so people overweight the free option far beyond its actual value and abandon better-priced alternatives, chasing the free thing even when a small-cost option delivers more.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Social versus Market Norm Cue
A one-time price signal can permanently convert a communal relationship into a transactional one.
Misconception
Practitioners believe adding a modest payment or fee always increases effort and cooperation because incentives motivate people.
Reality
Small payments can perform worse than no payment at all, because they replace generous social motives with a cheap market calculation; once money enters, people ask 'is this worth my time?' rather than 'is this the right thing to do?'
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Emotional Arousal State
Your calm self and your aroused self are two different agents with conflicting agendas.
Misconception
People assume they can accurately predict how they'll behave when aroused and that willpower in the moment will carry their calm intentions through.
Reality
In a cold state you systematically underpredict the magnitude of your shift in a hot state — the aroused self is effectively a different decision-maker, so intentions formed while calm provide almost no protection when arousal hits.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Relative Comparison FramingAdd a slightly inferior version of your target option — the asymmetric decoy — to raise its chosen share without changing its price.
- Price AnchorSet the anchor intentionally at first exposure, since early buyers' reference prices persist and drift toward internal consistency (arbitrary coherence).
- Zero Price FramingDropping a price from one cent to zero produces a jump in demand out of all proportion to the penny difference.
- Social versus Market Norm CueA one-time price signal can permanently convert a communal relationship into a transactional one.
- Emotional Arousal StateYour calm self and your aroused self are two different agents with conflicting agendas.
- Ownership AttachmentEndowment makes owners and buyers value the same object differently — the disagreement is psychological, not informational.
- Expectation SetThe frame you set beforehand becomes part of the sensory experience, not a separate opinion layered on top.
- Price as Quality SignalA higher price can causally improve real outcomes, not merely reported satisfaction.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition — Dan Ariely
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide