Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
by: Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
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A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.
Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.
Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).
Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.
A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.
Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.
Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).
Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Quick read but very imformative
I thought it was a wonderful book.Pointed out mistakes I make in my own thinking and though I may not be able to change my thinking much, at least it was able to make me aware of some of the traps I may be falling into.Very good book.
Rating: - Definitely swayed by Sway
I have read some great books the past few months. One of these is Sway: The Irresistible Pull Of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman.
Having loved The Starfish and the Spider, I was curious as to how SWAY would live up to its touted, will change the way you think about the way you think.
Essentially SWAY is a book that seeks to identify the unseen forces that sway us in our decision making. What was fascinating is how vulnerable we all are to these psychological forces. ... Read More
Rating: - Put it on Your Pop Psych Bookshelf
The Brafman boys have a nice addition to the Pop Psych Lit bookshelf here. The book's applicability cuts across genres, certainly touching on business (especially management and marketing), personal improvement, relationships, psychology, and probably other areas.
They start really strong with the story of an airline crash and the pilot's commitment of several successive and compounding errors that demonstrate some of their key takeaways: commitment bias, confirmation bias, avoidance of loss, ... Read More
Rating: - Challenge to assumption of rationality
Good effort to put scholarly studies into accessible language with a simple theme.In this case, the theme is a "sway" toward irrational behavior.The authors keep it tightly focused on a few sways - fear loss more than gain, diagnosis error, and commitment.Of these, the most interesting for these times is the idea that people negatively respond to losses far more than they positively respond to equivalent gains. The book offers suggestions to counter the sways once you recognize their existence.
Rating: 
- Well Written and Easy to Understand
I've been interested in the reasons people make the types of decisions they do even when presented with the evidence that it's the wrong decision or, at best, inappropriate. This book explains the reasons in an easy-to-understand format that makes sense.
It's a quick read without a lot of the technical gobbledygook that might be present in textbooks or peer reviewed journals.It's well worth a look.
- Quick read but very imformativeI thought it was a wonderful book.Pointed out mistakes I make in my own thinking and though I may not be able to change my thinking much, at least it was able to make me aware of some of the traps I may be falling into.Very good book.
- Definitely swayed by SwayI have read some great books the past few months. One of these is Sway: The Irresistible Pull Of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman.
Having loved The Starfish and the Spider, I was curious as to how SWAY would live up to its touted, will change the way you think about the way you think.
Essentially SWAY is a book that seeks to identify the unseen forces that sway us in our decision making. What was fascinating is how vulnerable we all are to these psychological forces. ... Read More
- Put it on Your Pop Psych BookshelfThe Brafman boys have a nice addition to the Pop Psych Lit bookshelf here. The book's applicability cuts across genres, certainly touching on business (especially management and marketing), personal improvement, relationships, psychology, and probably other areas.
They start really strong with the story of an airline crash and the pilot's commitment of several successive and compounding errors that demonstrate some of their key takeaways: commitment bias, confirmation bias, avoidance of loss, ... Read More
- Challenge to assumption of rationalityGood effort to put scholarly studies into accessible language with a simple theme.In this case, the theme is a "sway" toward irrational behavior.The authors keep it tightly focused on a few sways - fear loss more than gain, diagnosis error, and commitment.Of these, the most interesting for these times is the idea that people negatively respond to losses far more than they positively respond to equivalent gains. The book offers suggestions to counter the sways once you recognize their existence.
- Well Written and Easy to UnderstandI've been interested in the reasons people make the types of decisions they do even when presented with the evidence that it's the wrong decision or, at best, inappropriate. This book explains the reasons in an easy-to-understand format that makes sense.
It's a quick read without a lot of the technical gobbledygook that might be present in textbooks or peer reviewed journals.It's well worth a look.
