**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.
