In 'The Upside of Irrationality,' Dan Ariely aims to help readers 'figure out how we can get the most good and least bad out of ourselves' THE 2008 ECONOMIC crisis taught us that irrationality is an influential player in financial markets. But it is often the case that irrationality also makes its way into our daily lives and decision-making-in different and vastly more subtle ways.

In "The Upside of Irrationality," Dan Ariely shows how irrationality is an inherent part of the way we function and think, and how it affects our behavior in all areas of our lives, from our romantic relationships to our experiences in the workplace, to our temptations to cheat.

Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking analysis and new research into how we actually make decisions, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.

Using data from original experiments, he draws invaluable conclusions about how-and why-we behave the way we do, and reflects on ways we can make ourselves and our society better.

The experiments Ariely describes generate entertaining and often counterintuitive insights. We learn, for example, why it's better not to reward yourself with breaks from the grind of doing your taxes-and why it is a good idea to leave the hot tub to stand shivering for a bit before jumping back in. (Interruptions, studies have shown, prevent us from adapting to an experience, thereby heightening pleasure but also exacerbating pain.) Those still reeling from the audacity of Goldman Sachs will particularly enjoy the chapter on why outsize bonuses may actually reduce the quality of an executive's performance.

Ariely, a professor at Duke, gives us a tour of the irrational side of human decision-making and the science of behavioral economics. When it comes to our motivations, he writes, we are less like "hyper-rational Mr. Spock" and more like the "fallible, myopic, vindictive, emotional, biased Homer Simpson."

Given these frailties, Ariely wants to help us "figure out how we can get the most good and least bad out of ourselves" when making choices about our money, our relationships and our happiness.

Ariely explores the truth about:

What we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy

How we learn to love the ones we are with

Why online dating doesn't work, and how we can improve on it

Why learning more about people makes us like them less

Why large bonuses can make CEOs less productive

How to really motivate people at work

Why bad directions can help us

How we fall in love with our ideas

How we are motivated by revenge

What motivates us to cheat

Successful attempt

Behavioral economist Ariely's book is a mostly successful attempt to transform the scientific critique of the "rational consumer" principle into practical advice for living a better life.

"Mostly successful," only because some of our habitual irrationality is fundamentally insurmountable-there's almost nothing we can do to mitigate it.

But even when Ariely fails to deliver easy-to-follow advice for improving our lives, he still does deliver the same thought-provoking, fascinating experimental evidence for irrationality itself.

For example, the sections on online dating (the return on your investment in an online dating service is so poor that you might as well not bother) and charitable giving (it's nearly impossible to feel the visceral sympathy for a million sufferers in some terrible genocide that you feel for a man choking to death at the next table) are both engrossing and well-written.

But the advice Ariely gives on both counts amounts to: "Be aware that you're apt to make a bad decision in these situations."

On the other hand, there are sections in which the science of irrationality is readily converted into practical techniques for living better, and these really shine. An interesting one is the section on adaptation-that is, the way in which both terrible pain and incredible delights fade down to a kind of baseline normal over time.

Ariely points out that adaptation can be slowed or even prevented through intermittent exposure to the underlying stimulus-that is, if you take a break, the emotional sensation comes back with nearly full force.

Wrong intuitive response

Here's where our intuitive response is really wrong: We have a tendency to indulge our pleasures without respite, and to take frequent breaks from those things that make us miserable. This is exactly backwards. If you want to maximize your pleasure-a great dessert, the delight of furnishing your first real apartment after graduation, a wonderful new relationship-you should trickle it into your life, with frequent breaks for your adaptive response to diminish.

If you want to minimize your pain-an unpleasant chore, an awful trip-you should continue straight through without a break, because every time you stop, your adaptive response resets and you experience the discomfort anew.

Also outstanding is the section on motivation in the workplace, and the way in which imbuing work-tasks with even a little meaning can make them much easier to complete and much more satisfying.

There are several pieces of good, practical information here, all couched in Ariely's breezy, easy to read style. Even if Ariely's research doesn't always neatly translate into simple heuristics, he's such an interesting writer and thinker.

"The Upside of Irrationality" is available at National Book Store.