Something about it is So Irresistible

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior - Ori & Rom Brafman

That's an attitude, sir, that calls for the most delicate judgement on both sides. Because, as you know, sir, in the heat of action men are likely to forget where their best interests lie and let their emotions carry them away. (Gutman, The Maltese Falcon)

In this short comprehensible book Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman take a stab at explaining why our irrationality carries us away. By citing various situations, events and research in social and cognitive psychology, the authors demonstrate how irrationally we deal with problems, how we maintain guidelines and courses that have no future, and why at certain moments we literally lose our minds.

Using the example of a 1977 plane crash in Tenerife, caused by one of the most experienced pilots in the world and head of KLM's safety program, the Brafmans explain the effects of fear of loss. The captain of the KLM plane wanted to be punctual at all costs and unfortunately this compulsion not to lose time trumped logical thinking and he initiated takeoff without permission from the tower. The resulting crash killed 583 people.

Another interesting topic taken up by the authors relates to fairness. How we perceive fairness dramatically affects our perception and sways our thinking. For instance, when we find ourselves in a situation when something doesn’t feel fair – not getting a raise at work, bristling at the charge we don’t pull our weight - we might act like kids and silently quit with, “OK, low profile and just enough to do the job.” Such irrationality is usually not the best response.

So, the book is short, its examples are from the real world. It helped me to think and analyze my own actions in terms of fear of loss, value attribution, diagnosis bias, and group think (following the crowd). The tone is chatty and chirpy at times, like a Ted Talk. A picky reader might have qualms about treating complex subjects such as decision-making, the dynamics of group processes, conformism, and the chameleon effect in fewer than 200 pages. Human behavior is so complicated, that in fact we have no easy research-based answers to such complicated phenomena, and well-meaning, deeply-informed experts in various fields are still arguing about the research.

But it’s an example of pop psychology or self-help that is worth reading if a hardcore reader wants to dip their toe into the topics of rationalism, stupidity, errors and ways of conducting life (or business) mindfully.