Book Review Management and Labour Studies

41(4) 405–408
© 2017 XLRI Jamshedpur, School of
Business Management
& Human Resources
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0258042X16676698
http://mls.sagepub.com

Dan Ariely, The Irrational Bundle: Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth
about Dishonesty, Kindle edition. UK: Harper Collins, 2013, 960 pp., `1,121.39

• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. London: Harper Collins,
Revised edition, 2009, pp. 384, Rs. 230.00 (Paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0061353246.
• The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic. London: Harper Collins,
2010, pp. 334, Rs. 233.00 (Paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0061995033.
• The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. London:
Harper Collins, 2012, pp. 336, Rs. 399.00 (Paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0062183590.

This bundle comprises three books by Dan Ariely, which challenge the grounded economic assumption
of a rational human. The central theme of the irrational bundle is that human decision making is not
always the outcome of rational optimization. Rather the irrelevant factors, which have mostly been
ignored by academicians, play a vital role in shaping decisions. Showcasing his creativity at its best, the
books are written with wit, humour and precision. Similar to the dummies book series, these books by
Dan Ariely have introduced the behavioural approach to economics for dummies. The field of behavioural
economics has gained prominence in the academic world over the last decade. It has brought a paradigm
shift in the model of rational choice with the integration of psychology and economics. Dan Ariely
introduces the field of behavioural economics to the masses with his simple articulation of decision-
making scenarios in everyday life. The broad intent of the author, and admirably so, is to make individuals
aware of their weaknesses and temptations and enable them to overcome their irrational quirks.
The first book, Predictably Irrational, serves as a guiding light for the remaining two books.
It challenges the conventional view held by economists that human beings are perfectly rational in their
approach and make decisions after careful deliberation. The objective of the book is to introduce
individuals to understand their own follies while making decisions and how easily consumer needs can
be manipulated through self-created biases. By conducting experiments and putting across situations to
the reader, the author achieves his goal of showing that humans are not only irrational but also the
irrationality in decision making can be predicted. Neatly compiled in 13 chapters, the whole argument of
making irrational decisions is supported by different examples and experimental studies. All these
presented in a story-like fashion keep the reader engaged till the end. The end result sometimes makes
the reader think and laugh as one realizes the trap of irrationality and how each one was manipulated as
a consumer.
406 Book Review

The concept of making a decision under the influence of relativity, seeing things in a context and
making decisions through comparison is ingrained in human psychology. Taking decisions, such as
ordering a dish from a menu card or deciding a place to rent or taking a magazine subscription, are easily
manipulated by sellers by interventions, such as putting an expensive dish on the menu or providing a
comparative rental chart or offering discounts on a bundle. Such interventions create biases and heuristics
in decision making, such as anchoring, herding, self-herding and endowment effect. The author also
reveals human vulnerabilities and how easily people fall into the trap of irrationality when something is
given for free. It is easy for suppliers to engage consumers under the pretext of giving freebies, such as
free shipping costs on purchase of a certain minimum amount. Further, the takeover of rationality by
irrational forces under emotional arousal is explained.
The latter part of first book argues that humans are irrational but indeed predictable. Daily life
temptations to procrastinate, such as delaying health check-ups and waiting for season sale in search of
options beyond need, are used to substantiate the claim. Expectations and mental blocks on high prices
influence the buying decisions. The predictable and systematic nature of irrational quirks enables
consumers to be manipulated by the sellers. This book defies the normative economics by offering
solutions and strategies to control the irrational temptations and also offers a precursor to the third book
of the bundle. Dan Ariely provides opportunity for an engaged reading and self-discovery as the reader
is skilfully provoked to ponder over the decisions made in everyday life, but largely ignored.
While the first book explored the dark side of irrationality and taking unwise decisions, the second
book titled The Upside of Irrationality looks at the brighter side of irrationality. The intent of the author
in this book is to project irrationality in a new perspective away from the negative connotation. Taking a
similar approach as that in the first book, the positive aspects of irrationality are demonstrated by
experimental designs and easy-to-understand examples. One of the unique characteristics of this book is
that it gives a deeper peep into the life of Dan Ariely as he takes the reader through the ups and downs of
his life. The book narrates the personal life experiences of people surrounding the author’s life and
how those people succumbed to irrational forces. The book is divided into two broader parts comprising
11 chapters. The first part explores human behaviour in work environment, whereas the second part
explores human behaviour in interpersonal relations.
Human behaviour in work environment is guided by the conventional wisdom that a rational human
being should do a cost–benefit analysis and maximize utility. Dan Ariely challenges this and proves his
argument through experiments and own personal experiences. However, the vivid description of his
physical treatment of high-degree burns, which relates less to the reader, ends up irking the reader in few
instances. The author shows the importance of cognitive psychological forces playing a role in decision
making and performance. Further, the author questions the role of big bonuses in increasing performance
and argues that a sense of meaning in work can influence performance at work. Through experiments, he
proves how huge monetary bonuses can have an adverse effect on performance by increasing the stress
levels. The author has tried to give a food for thought to human resource management professionals on
how to keep employees motivated at workplace. With few leaves taken from the first book, the author
also shows how the endowment effect, loss aversion and attachment to self-made objects lead to over-
valuation. However, along with this, the author also makes the readers aware of their ‘not invented here’
bias and how they treasure own ideas more than those of outsiders. It is the psychological factors
governing our thoughts and the biases that make us less rational even while seeking revenge.
Human behaviour in interpersonal relations is complicated and difficult to compartmentalize owing
to the unique level of adaptation and varying responses to experiences. The author has used the example
of dynamics in dating and why online dating could not be a success to portray our fragile nature.
This widens the perspective of viewing different services/products offered and how they can be improved
Book Review 407

by incorporating elements catering to our limitations. The aim of the second part of this book is to find
more realistic solutions to alleviate problems by leveraging on irrational forces. The author communicates
the same by quoting examples of how humans become more socially committed by being a part of
societal problems, even if it may not concern a wider group. On the other hand, issues that might be more
critical and catering to wider group like global warming fail to gather support since people do not feel
the negative outcomes of it immediately and in person. Thus, mostly the emotional appeal overtakes the
rational deal. Through this book, Dan Ariely convincingly persuades the reader to probe on questions
such as why people love their own kids more than others, why people change behaviour based on an
immediate past experience and why some people find it difficult to adapt to change.
The third book of the bundle, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, feels like an elaborated version of
a chapter from Predictably Irrational. Presented in 10 chapters, this book explores the forces that compel
humans to become dishonest and strives to find ways to nudge people to be honest. However, the book
is a highly personalized account of the author’s own personal experiences of interpersonal relations.
Leaving that apart, the book introduces an interesting concept of simple model of rational crime
(SMORC). It states that humans do a cost–benefit analysis while being dishonest. They do certainty
cheat but only to a level convenient to them. The actions of dishonesty depend upon the benefits
of committing the crime, the chances of getting caught and the severity of punishment when caught.
There is a constant struggle between the acts of honesty and the acts of dishonesty as people want to
view themselves as honest individuals but also want to gain from cheating without feeling guilty.
The book in the initial chapters narrates a hilarious example of a father scolding his child for stealing the
neighbour’s stationary when the father could have stolen the same thing from his office. Here, the reader
is left to ponder on the definition of the act of dishonesty as well as on the emergent confusion on
whether honesty is convenience based. The author used these notions as the basis for fudge factor theory.
It is the personal fudge factors that govern dishonesty, and the less people try to rationalize the acts of
dishonesty the less they fudge or cheat. In addition, the author makes interesting observations through
experiments where the fudge factor can be manipulated.
Further, the third book explores the antecedents leading to dishonest behaviour. A few of them are
conflict of interest, presence of grey areas in interpretation, feeling of exhaustion, committing an immoral
act, seeing others cheat and breeding in a culture of dishonesty. The author’s creativity and perfection as
a writer become evident when he examines the phenomenon of people wearing fake products leading to
dishonest behaviour. An interesting result of the experiments was that the money and probability of
being caught had no effect on acts of dishonesty. Involvement of money rather makes people cheat less
as they are reminded of moral codes. The more cashless a situation is, the more willing a person is to
cheat. Also, more than the probability of being caught it is the severity of punishment that deters
dishonesty. The message of the book is presented in a manner comprehendible to any layman.
The author in all the three books has tried to give solutions which can improve decision making of
individuals and give a better direction to regulators in implementing policies. Moral reminders and
taking pledges before an action along with better supervision nudge people to be more honest. The books
written in a narrative style are casual, simple and smooth, which make them a lovable read for commoners.
For regulators, these books invoke the need for more realistic policies by accounting for human
irrationality in decision making. The intent of the author is to leverage the good and bad of irrational
forces to get better outcomes. As a true academician, Dan Ariely has brought these books as a counter
to the trap of irrationality.
Applying the essence of the books on the books itself, it is interesting to note that the first chapter
of the book Predictably Irrational talks about how sellers offer different bundles of web and hard
copy solutions for subscription. Similarly, the irrational bundle puts the readers into a temptation of
408 Book Review

buying all the three books. Due to irrational quirks, most individuals are tempted to go for the bundle
even though that might not be the most rational decision. The first book, a much-needed possession for
everyone, undoubtedly offers new insights, whereas the second and the third books have few repetitions
and extensions from the first book. Though Dan Ariely with his knack of humour keeps you engaged in
all the three books, while reading the The Honest Truth about Dishonesty it seems the decision to buy the
whole bundle was, to some extent, irrational.

Divya Aggarwal
Doctoral Student
XLRI–Xavier School of Management
fb14007@astra.xlri.ac.in