Sway

The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

By: Rom Brafman, Ori Brafman

Narrated by: John Apicella

Like the best-selling Blink and Freakonomics, this lively narrative is a fresh view of the world, explaining the previously inexplicable and revealing hidden influences on human decision-making.

A Harvard Business School student pays over $200 for a $20 bill. Washington, D.C., commuters ignore a free subway concert by a violin prodigy. A veteran airline pilot attempts to take off without control-tower clearance and collides with another plane on the runway. Why do we do the wildly irrational things we sometimes do?

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, brothers Ori and Rom Brafman reveal the dynamic forces that act on us repeatedly over time, affecting nearly every aspect of our personal and business lives. They show how we are sabotaged by loss aversion (going to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (ignoring evidence that contradicts our initial take on a person or situation), and commitment (even when a plan isn't working, we are reluctant to change course).

Weaving together colorful stories about dot-com millionaires, game-show audiences, NBA coaches, and the U.S. Supreme Court, this audiobook tours the flip side of reason and points us toward a more rational life.

©2008 Copyright © Ori and Rom Brafman. Recorded by arrangement with Currency/Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2008 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Brilliant." (Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum)
"Sway helped me recognize an aspect of irrational behavior in my experimental work in physics. Sometimes I have jumped into some research that didn't feel quite right...but some irrational lure, such as the hope of quick success, pulled me in." (Martin L. Perl, 1995 Nobel Laureate in physics)

Excellent use of examples to illustrate

What made the experience of listening to Sway the most enjoyable?

The author does an excellent job of using specific examples to help illustrate the lessons. The listener is given both the theoretical (for more abstract thinkers), and specific examples to help others relate and understand. Very informative, and exceptionally well organized.

unknown factors in our decisions

Exposes the unknown factors in our decisions so we can deal with them rationally and reasonably.

I was swayed by other reviews

I passed this book over several times because of a couple of bad reviews. The truth is, if you enjoy your information delivered through narrative, you'll like this book very much.

Good, but not scientifical enough for my taste.

Good, but not scientifical enough for my taste. It contains entertaining anecdotes, nice examples, but not enough actionable content.

Anecdotes!

If you have before read/listened to books for Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Daniel Gilbert or any of the other great psychologists who illustrate the human biases, heuristics and mental fallacies ... then avoid this book.
The books only provides anecdotal evidence for already well studied topics while putting the whole thing in a very clumsy, shallow model.
Most of the anecdotes are entertaining though :)