Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
by Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ori Brafman, Rom BrafmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 0385530609
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Broadway Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385530606
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
Book Review: Excellent! Worth reading even for those who had done Predictably Irrational, Nudge and books by Gladwell and Cialdini
Summary: 5 Stars
For those who had read the books I mentioned in the review title, the grave concern should be whether this is just another low quality copycat. Rest assure this will satisfy you well, with the well picked cases, simplistic description of the sophisticated experiment setting and theoretical framework behind, and most importantly, the pragmatic advice that help us to be less susceptible to the sway of irrational behaviour. In short, highly recommended!
p.s. Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.
Once the ER doctors perceived that a mother had overreated to her baby's symptoms they ignored the warning signs and repeatedly sent the toddler home. The baby died later. They fell under the diagnosis bias - the moment we label a person or a situation, we put on blinders to all evidence that contradicts our diagnosis. pg6-7
An MIT econ class received bios of a substitute professor. The only difference (two words in the whole bio) is that half of the bios describe the professor as very warm while the second half describe him as rather cold. Subsequent questionnaire result shows that most students in first group describe the sub as good natured, considerate, informal, sociable. The second group saw him as self-centered, unsociable...In other words, a singel word has the power to alter our whole perception of another person - and possibly sour the relationship before it even begins. pg72-3
A group of Israel training officers were told of the arbitrary classification of the command potential of a group of soldiers....The soliders whom the training officers thought had a high CP score performed much better on the test than their unknown and regular counterparts....If you've ever been fortunate enough to work for a boss who values and believes in you, you'll know that you tend to rise to meet the igh expectations set fo ryou. On the other hand, there's nothing that will make you feel more incompetent and demoralized than a supervisor who is convinced you dont have what it takes.....In psychological circles, this mirroring of expectations is known as the Pygmalion/Golem effect (for our taking on positive/negative traits) pg98-100
51 women were to talk on phone to a group of men who before the calls got the women's bios and fake photos, whereas half of photos were of very pretty women, the rest were of women who were more ordinary in appearance. Afterward, each man was handed an "Impression Formation Questionnaire". The results were telling that men who saw pictures of pretty women expected to interact with sociable, poised, humorous and socially adept women. The other group of men thought the women would be unsociable, awkward, serious and socially inept....Those edited calls containing only the women's voices were played to a third, independent group which then did the same questionnaire. They attributed the same traits to the women based on their voices alone that the men had attributed to them based on their fake photos....The women unconsciously picked up on the "beautiful" opinion the men had of them and acted accordingly. pg101-3
Negative and external feelings about old age can actually make people physically age faster. pg105
When it comes to fairness, it's the process, not the outcome, that causes us to react irrationally. This is called procedural justice.....What mattered to Ford dealers wasnt just whether they felt they got a good deal; they evaluated transactions by such seemingly insignificant details as wehther Ford took pains to learn the local conditions under which dealers operate, acted in a polite and well mannered fashion, and treated deales with respect. These fairness factors proved more important than the underlying economic numbers. pg118-9
In evaluating the fairness of their trial, convicted felon respondents placed nearly as much weight on the process as they did on the outcome. One of the factors weighed most heavily was how much time their lawyer spent with them. The more time he or she spent with them, the more satisfied the respondents were with the ultimate outcome.....The needs to be heard, it turns out, isnt limited to just convicted felons but the venture capitalists as well. pg120-1
Summary of Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
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.
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