Is there an audiobook of Predictably Irrational?

Yes. Predictably Irrational has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Simon Jones.

How long is the Predictably Irrational audiobook?

The Predictably Irrational audiobook runs 7 hr 22 min.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely book cover for the Book of the Day psychology book review

Our score

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Predictably Irrational free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

Kindle$13⁹⁹

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EDITION PUBLISHEDFebruary 2008

Genres

Non-Fiction Psychology Economics

Themes

Relativity and the power of a decoy optionSocial norms versus market transactionsThe pull of anything labeled freeOwnership and the endowment effectProcrastination and pre-commitment

Predictably Irrational

Name: Predictably Irrational
Price: 13.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely ran years of experiments on students, shoppers, and bar patrons to show that the ways we misjudge value are systematic enough to predict in advance. Predictably Irrational is the tour: decoy pricing, the pull of free, the moment a favor curdles into a transaction. Short chapters, real studies, a light touch with the economics.

The Review

Our take

The Economist once ran a subscription ad with three prices. Web only, fifty-nine dollars. Print only, one hundred twenty-five. Print and web, also one hundred twenty-five. The middle option is absurd and nobody buys it. Ariely showed the ad to a hundred MIT students and most took the bundle. Then he deleted the useless middle option, showed it to another hundred, and the majority switched to the cheap web-only plan. The decoy nobody wanted was steering the entire decision.

Predictably Irrational runs on demonstrations like that, dozens of them, each built to catch a specific place where the standard story of the rational chooser falls apart. Ariely has students write down the last two digits of their Social Security numbers, then bid on wine and chocolate, and the high-digit students bid several times more. He offers a Lindt truffle at fifteen cents against a Hershey's Kiss at one cent, drops both prices by a penny, and the free Kiss wipes the truffle out. He asks people to do a small favor, then offers a small payment for the same favor, and the payment makes them work less. Chapters are short and self-contained. The prose is a lecture-hall voice, jokey, light on math, heavy on setup and punchline.

The practical carryover is narrower than the sales-and-marketing crowd claims. Most of these effects describe a trap you are already standing in rather than a lever you can pull, and Ariely says so; knowing about a bias barely dents it. What survives contact with Monday morning is small and still worth doing. Strip the decoy out of any choice you present, and look for one planted in a choice presented to you. Set deadlines with real costs instead of trusting your future self, which is what his own students did when they beat the class given a single end-of-term due date. Think hard before attaching money to something that has been running on goodwill, because the price tag replaces the goodwill instead of adding to it. And treat the honesty chapters as the softest ground here. That corner of the research has had a rough decade, Ariely's own studies included.

Why you should read

Fans of Freakonomics and Thinking, Fast and Slow
Readers who want an experiment behind every claim
Anyone who prices, sells, or negotiates for a living
Curious readers with no economics background

What to expect

Short chapters, one bias and one study each
Conversational lecture-hall tone, almost no math
Findings that describe the trap more than the escape
Easy to read in pieces over a week

The experiment that sticks is the one with the doors. Ariely built a simple computer game where three doors pay out money, and any door left unclicked long enough starts shrinking and eventually vanishes. Players could have parked on the best-paying door and cleaned up. Instead they burned click after click, and real earnings, darting back to keep dying doors alive. Nobody wanted those doors. They wanted them open. Read the rest for the pricing tricks; that chapter follows you into decisions the book never mentions.

Reviewed by Jordan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Predictably Irrational free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

Kindle$13⁹⁹

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Predictably Irrational?: Yes. Predictably Irrational has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Simon Jones.
Listen to Predictably Irrational free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Predictably Irrational audiobook?: The Predictably Irrational audiobook runs 7 hr 22 min.
How much does Predictably Irrational cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $13.99. Prices as of August 26, 2026 at 3:46 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is Predictably Irrational about?: The Economist once ran a subscription ad with three prices. Web only, fifty-nine dollars. Print only, one hundred twenty-five. Print and web, also one hundred twenty-five. The middle option is absurd and nobody buys it. Ariely showed the ad to a hundred MIT students and most took the bundle. Then…
Is Predictably Irrational worth reading?: We scored Predictably Irrational 4.6 out of 5. Dan Ariely ran years of experiments on students, shoppers, and bar patrons to show that the ways we misjudge value are systematic enough to predict in advance. Predictably Irrational is the tour: decoy pricing, the pull of free, the moment a favor curdles into a transaction…