Sway, Ori Brafman
Sway, Ori Brafman
4 Rating(s)
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Sway
The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Author: Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman

Narrator: John Apicella

Unabridged: 4 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/17/2008


Synopsis

Like the bestsellers Blink and Freakonomics, this lively narrative is a fresh view of the world, explaining the previously inexplicable and revealing hidden influences on human decision-making.

A Harvard Business School student pays over $200 for a $20 bill. Washington, DC, commuters ignore a free subway concert by a violin prodigy. A veteran airline pilot attempts to take off without control tower clearance and collides with another plane on the runway. Why do we do the wildly irrational things we sometimes do?

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, brothers Ori and Rom Brafman reveal the dynamic forces that act on us repeatedly over time, affecting nearly every aspect of our personal and business lives. They show how we are sabotaged by loss aversion (going to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (ignoring evidence that contradicts our initial take on a person or situation), and commitment (even when a plan isn't working, we are reluctant to change course).

Weaving together colorful stories—about dot-com millionaires, game show audiences, NBA coaches, and the US Supreme Court—Sway tours the flip side of reason and points us toward a more rational life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lena on July 01, 2008

I was not at all in the mood for another non-fiction book about human behavior when my husband asked if I wanted to read this one before he returned it to the library. I half-heartedly decided to scan a few pages before saying no, but I was quickly sucked in to a fictionalized re-creation of the las......more

Goodreads review by Tim on February 07, 2023

This was a pretty fun short book about he we are often much more irrational than we would like to think. If you’ve read some popular behavioral economics books, many of the case studies will be familiar to you. There’s the one about the great violinist who plays in the subway in scrappy clothes, the......more

Goodreads review by Otis on August 29, 2008

Great book. Quick read, and you learn about about psychology that you can apply to life or business. A few notes: - All about first impressions. First impressions can sway our opinion of something for years to come regardless of subsequent performance. - Labels matter. If you label someone as a higher......more

Goodreads review by Mesoscope on September 24, 2010

I wish I could recommend this book, as the topic is an interesting and important one, but I can't. It's simply not well written or organized. Brafman treats the hot topic of cognitive biases and nonconscious factors that contribute to decision making, an area which has received enormous attention in......more

Goodreads review by Joselito Honestly on April 09, 2019

Books are basically meant to be read (although some buy them for display purposes only). So you buy books because you intend to read them. But why buy more books if you already have so many books in your to-be-read pile that you can’t possibly finish reading them even if you live 150 years? IT is po......more