Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

I still think Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, is the best. This one shared some of the stories and studies, but also added some more new concepts. It was also a read.

The authors outlined 7 “sways” that affect one’s decision making process. They are so powerful to cause catastrophic and irrational decisions, costing millions of dollars or even lives. They are:

  1. Loss Aversion: we avert losses irrationally. Not that losses are pleasant, but their weights in our decision-making process are too great.
  2. Commitment: for some reasons, once we have committed to a decision, we went to great length to carry it out, even in the face of obvious flaws for that decision.
  3. Value bias: we used “short cuts,” such as the person’s reputation or appearance, to evaluate the merit of a decision, instead of the facts and data.
  4. Diagnosis Bias: once we have evaluated a subject, we stubbornly stick to our first impression and refuse to revisit.
  5. Chameleon Effect: we automatically conform to whatever mold others put us into, regardless of the merit of such molding. If the teacher said we are not good student, then we won’t even try to be better. When someone said we are pretty, then we will put on even better appearance.
  6. Fairness: most of us have a strong sense of fairness, even when achieving so does us no benefit.
  7. Blocker and Dissent: once we had an idea, we hate people who oppose to it and give them nasty treatments.

We generally do not make rational decisions. The book teaches us to do better. More importantly, it also taught me the typical ways most people make decisions. With this, and Daniel Kahneman’s book, we can not only improve ourselves, but also become better in understanding others.

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