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Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior |  | Authors: Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
Publisher: Crown Business
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  136 reviews
Sales Rank: 4090
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0385530609
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.92
EAN: 9780385530606
Publication Date: June 2, 2009
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 136
 Be more self aware. August 10, 2010
J. Edgar Mihelic (Chicago)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Hey you!
Do you like basic fundamentals of psychology or behavioral economics?
Do you like it when these are the basis for a book that posits that basic insight as a huge revelation?
Then Sway is the book for you! Apparently, sometimes people act irrationally. They are prone to group-think or reinforcing the status quo. People don't like rocking the cradle. We make judgments based on assumptions. We can get beyond that by being mindful of our biases and taking the long view. Be more self aware.
There, I saved you a couple of hours.
Easy - makes you think July 26, 2010
Joseph Valentine Dworak (Minneapolis, MN)
This is a great book to read and provoke your brain. Combining both business and psychology these authors get into the reasons for different behaviors we end up doing because of the conflicts in our own brains. What I liked about it was they broke down intense concepts into easy to understand language. Not an easy task with the material they were dealing with. I would recommend this book to others.
The parts on job interviewing and what to ask and what not to ask were really valuable for anyone who does hiring.
 A Nice Primer on Irrational Behavior July 26, 2010
James East (Orlando, FL)
As one reviewer indicates, 'yet a another volume in the contemporary genre of books based on a single insight'. Partially true, in that 'we' do display irrational behavior and there are many books on the subject, but not true of this book in total. This is since there are more than a few insights the authors offer to the different ways, and reasons, we act irrational to the outside observer. Some of these irrational behaviors are:
1) Loss Aversion
2) Value Attribution
3) Diagnosis Bias
If you are interested in a primer on this subject, this book is as good a start as any and worth the quick and enjoyable read. If you are interested in more, a few of may favorites on the subject include:
Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition by Michael J. Mauboussin
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) by Robert B. Cialdini
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich
Mean Markets and Lizard Brains: How to Profit from the New Science of Irrationality by Terry Burnham
The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making (McGraw-Hill Series in Social Psychology) by Scott Plous
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition by Peter D. Kaufman
Fine "pop" psychology that's worth reading July 24, 2010
Mark A. Santillo (Portland, OR USA)
Summary: The authors examine some of the most common reasons why folks tend to abandon rationality when critical decision-making skills are called for and suggest a few ways to guard against irrational thinking.
The Meat: The premise of the book, that people will act irrationally, and often against their own best interests, due to the presence of persistent psychological influencers, is easily confirmed by examining some of our own decisions. I liked the fact that the information presented in the book was immediately useful, and led to many "aha" moments.
The Brafmans cover a handful of "sways" including: loss aversion, value attribution, diagnosis bias, commitment, the "chameleon effect," our need for procedural justice (or "fairness") and the distorting pressures of group dynamics. Just how powerful this handful can be, and I"m sure they are just scratching the surface, they demonstrate through many amusing and bewildering anecdotes and studies, all amply documented in the notes.
Here are a few of the "mysteries" explained by the pull of irrational sways: why an experienced pilot and flight safety expert crashed a plane, resulting in the deaths of 584 people; why LBJ committed to remaining in Vietnam when he knew that the U.S. could never win that war; why the scientific community would accept an easily disproved paleontological forgery over an expertly documented but unconventional theory; why job interviews are seldom correlated with on-the-job performance; the explosion of bipolar disorder diagnoses in children; why a Russian audience would "help" a gameshow contestant to lose; why selfish pleasure beats out noble altruism most of the time; and how Supreme Court justices choose whether or not to write dissenting opinions.
Conclusion: I would classify this volume in the genre of "pop psychology," in that it takes some basic psychological concepts and breaks them down into ordinary language accompanied by real-world examples of the implications. While light reading, I believe that it makes its points well enough and is worth a read. While doing so, it may be worth keeping track of your own "aha" moments, to see where your own decision-making process has been unwittingly hijacked by these powerful psychological undercurrents.
 Great Read, Insights Into Some of Our Bad Choices July 16, 2010
Edward J Vasicek (Kokomo, IN USA)
This books is a must read for people in general and leaders in particular. Ori and Rom Brafman explain the "Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior," the subtitle of the book. I think the authors really mean "not usually resisted," for the conclusion of the book illustrates cases where people have resisted these irrational pulls.
Irrational decisions based upon loss avoidance (driving dangerously when one is late, for example) or commitment when commitment is no longer warranted are two cases in point, as is paradigm blindness in its various incarnations.
The authors seem confused about the typical American perspective of our willingness to suffer loss rather than be treated unfairly. The authors apparently embrace a different value system than do most Yanks. After all, debate over fairness issues is how America began, did it not? (At least in the eyes of most Americans; the Brits, I am sure, have a different take). Whether that is irrational or not can be debated. Some might argue that insisting on fairness -- even if it involves personal loss -- makes for a better society and creates long-term benefits. So I disagree with them on that point. They need to understand that this is not an irrational vs. rational issue, but a values matter.
This is an EXCELLENT BOOK and will not only help you understand the nature of the irrational choices others make (in some instances; some people, for example, are just fickle), but it will help readers pick up their own irrationalities (it showed a few to me). Very worthwhile read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 136
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