Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior Features

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A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.

Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).

Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.

What Customers Say About Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior:

It is the sort of book that you find yourself wondering why you get so easily lead astray when it all seems so inappropriate in the clear light of day.Some of the examples given in the book certainly appear strange until they are dissected and the human behavioral patterns are analysed and explained.If you are interested to understand better how the mind works and how it can be influenced by factors around it then this book is certainly worth your time to read. A very worthwhile book that demonstrates how easily we can be influenced. Conversely if you are interested to learn how your thinking process may be being manipulated then this is also probably a very worthwhile read.

The authors did violate the Law of Parsimony (the simplest, most straight forward explanation is most likely correct). Despite this shortcoming, the book was valuable to psychologist and non psychologist alike.Maurice Regan. This is a very good book that generally conveys research in this area quite well. They wandered into the area of unreplicated pseudoscience when reporting that competing areas of the brain determined choice behavior, ignoring reinforcement and conditioning.

I listened to the audio version while driving on a recent trip and was not impressed. Furthermore, the entire book bring you back to the case studies from that 101 class. Freakonomics next. I received both the paperback and unabridged audiobook for Christmas. The content is supposed to be similar to Gladwell's Blink (which was why my mother gave it to me). Perhaps I was cheated though because the last audiobook I listened to was by Malcolm Gladwell. I've skimmed through the paperback and it looks like a quick read, I will save it for a beach day in the future.

Braffan does a poor job, they actually do a fairly good one but there is something compelling about the way Gladwell speaks to the reader in the audio version. Four stars regardless, great content and well written--just not what I was looking for. SWAY sort of seemed to speak generally about cases. If you are familiar with the subject, it will remind you of Psych 101 with flashbacks to social loafing, group think, and cognitive dissonance. This was my problem. It has a strength though in terms of self-improvement, it offers concise direct insight on decision making rationale (perhaps more than Gladwell).

Gladwell does a superb job narrating. I would say that its cross reference to Blink perhaps SWAYED me in my initial perception of how the book was written, but I will not let that bias block me from applauding the Brafmans. SWAY is a great read for anyone unfamiliar with behavioral psychology. I felt though that Gladwell offered more depth on his conclusive synopsis'. Not to say that Mr.

After reading this book once, I find myself going back and rereading portions just to make sure that I'm not "swayed" in real life. I would recommend this book to anyone with an open mind and likes an easy yet griping read. I don't say this often but this really is a page turner. I love the tone and voice of this book, it feels as if the author is discovering these insights right next to you instead of bestowing knowledge on you.

This very short book is more like a long article. Some interesting stories, but not much in the way of self-help or whatever the point of the book is.