New, 21st anniversary edition, with a new foreword by Ben Goldacre,
author of Bad Science and Bad Pharma, and an afterword by James Ball,
covering developments in our understanding of irrationality over the
last two decades. Why do doctors, army generals, high-ranking government
officials and other people in positions of power make bad decisions that
cause harm to others? Why do prizes serve no useful function? Why are
punishments so ineffective? Why is interviewing such an unsatisfactory
method of selection? Irrationality is a challenging and
thought-provoking book that draws on statistical concepts, probability
theory and a mass of intriguing research to expose the failings of human
reasoning, judgement and intuition. The author explores the
inconsistencies of human behaviour, and discovers why even the experts
find it so hard to make rational and unbiased decisions. Written with
clarity and occasional flashes of wry humour, this classic volume is
just as relevant today as when it was first written twenty-one years
ago.