Contents

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION
How an Injury Led Me to Irrationality and to the
Research Described Here

CHAPTER 1 - The Truth about Relativity
Why Everything Is Relative—Even When It Shouldn’t Be

CHAPTER 2 - The Fallacy of Supply and Demand
Why the Price of Pearls—and Everything Else—Is Up in the Air

CHAPTER 3 - The Cost of Zero Cost
Why We Often Pay Too Much When We Pay Nothing

CHAPTER 4 - The Cost of Social Norms
Why We Are Happy to Do Things, but Not When We Are Paid to Do Them

CHAPTER 5 - The Power of a Free Cookie

CHAPTER 6 - The Influence of Arousal
Why Hot Is Much Hotter Than We Realize

CHAPTER 7 - The Problem of Procrastination and Self-Control
Why We Can’t Make Ourselves Do What We Want to Do

CHAPTER 8 - The High Price of Ownership
Why We Overvalue What We Have

CHAPTER 9 - Keeping Doors Open
Why Options Distract Us from Our Main Objective

CHAPTER 10 - The Effect of Expectations
Why the Mind Gets What It Expects

CHAPTER 11 - The Power of Price
Why a 50-Cent Aspirin Can Do What a Penny Aspirin Can’t

CHAPTER 12 - The Cycle of Distrust

CHAPTER 13 - The Context of Our Character, Part I
Why We Are Dishonest, and What We Can Do about It

CHAPTER 14 - The Context of Our Character, Part II
Why Dealing with Cash Makes Us More Honest

CHAPTER 15 - Beer and Free Lunches
What Is Behavioral Economics, and Where Are the Free Lunches?

THANKS

LIST OF COLLABORATORS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ADDITIONAL READINGS

PRAISE FOR PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL