Brain Sucker

Why Smart Brains Make Stupid Decisions on Money, work and health
Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains

It happens. Often.

Why?

We just got an interview with Ori Brafman, co-author of Sway: The irresistible pull of irrational behavior (Doubleday Business, 2008), to discuss our Dark Side (well, he calls if "different hidden forces" and " psychological undercurrents ").

While reading some comments about his book, I particularly enjoyed finding, after the usual long and impressive collection of visa, this denial ":

* Note: If you decide to buy this book because of these endorsements, you just got rocked. One of the psychological forces, you read in Sway is our tendency to give greater value on the opinions of people in positions of importance, power or authority. (But you should always buy the book.)

Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Ori, which is SWAY? can you give us some quick examples?

Ori Brafman (OB): Sway is about why perfectly rational people make irrational choices. We interviewed business executives, airline pilots, doctors, and even a judge of the Supreme Court to discover the psychological forces that affect our decision. What was particularly interesting was that we all get influenced, and that these psychological forces are much more than we thought.

Take, for example, the story of Jacob Van Zanten who was the head of security for KLM. A foggy afternoon, Van Zanten took off without permission in turn causing the accident largest airline in history. Why is this man, who is the head of security are such irrational choice?

Or look at the history of Harvard Business School students who paid $ 204 for a twenty dollar bill.

AF: Glad to have attended Stanford ... Now, how did this happen?

OB: The professor set up an auction for a $ 20 ticket. But there was a twist. The winner will get the $ 20 ticket. But the second place bidder, would still have to honor its bid, but get nothing. At first, there are many candidates, but as the bidding approaches $ 20 people start to retire. Inevitably, if two people stay in. As the bidding continued to rise, the second person was determined not to be the sucker who pays a lot of money for nothing in return. The amazing thing is that every day the auction continues well beyond the $ 20 point. People are so determined not to lose, they continue to mount.

AF: Why do people get influenced?

OB: Without realizing it, we get swept by a multitude of different forces hidden. I feel like being in a boat in the middle of the ocean. It may seem as if we were standing still, but under the surface lurk move us without us realizing it. The same thing happens with psychological undercurrents. In Sway, we look at some of the major undercurrents and explore how they intersect as different trigger irrational behavior. The fact is that we are prone to emotional swings of all time - if we are conducting a job interview, to release a first date, or deciding whether to sell a stock.

AF: Let's be practical for a minute ... What can we do to Sway other people?

OB: We are constantly engaged in a masked dance of all kinds where we throw people around us and are influenced by others. One of the most unusual studies we encountered has to do with what we call the chameleon effect. In the study, a group of men and women - who never met each other - said to have a short phone conversation. Now, before the conversation, each man has shown a picture of the woman he would talk to. Unbeknownst to the men, the photos were false. And half the men showed a photo of a beautiful woman, while the other half showed a picture of a woman less attractive. The images have nothing to do with the way real women l.