Predictably irrational

It was really  the book that made me think about the experience I or the people I came across had had in our lives. The experiments done in this book are interesting and attractive but they are more generalized than specific. I mean to say that cultural, economical, social and historical aspects were not taken into consideration. Let’s say if you do the same research in America and in Albania, it’s more likely that the  results will be different, because of completely different mentality( the reasons I mentioned above),but if the same experiment is done in Albania and Russia the results  possibly will be the same. Another example is if we do the research about the chocolates when more quality chocolate costs some cents and less quality one costs nothing. I am thinking now about mentality of Russian people. If they are people from elite layer of society or people who want to seem from this layer be sure that they will not even look at the sign “free”; but come to some distant places of Russia and you will hardly see anybody choosing the quality chocolate. And to both side their choices will be… rational. Predictably. Well, I know it from my own experience. I had worked in duty free shop in Antalya airport for six months and could certainly define the behavior models of people from different countries and of different statuses. If we take into consideration Russian ladies “with money”(I would divide them into two categories: with taste and without) they always were going to choose the most expensive brands of perfume and cosmetics no matter if they need them or not. Taking for free will “spoil” their status. But German ladies were behaving just on the contrary: they were going to the cheapest stands and didn’t miss “free of charge” chance.

     I can’t but mention another aspect that was touched upon in the  book – honesty. It says if there is a coke in the common fridge and it doesn’t belong to you it is easy to take. Easy for whom? I think it is again matter of education and bringing up. Personally for me it is stealing or at least using someone’s right. And I believe that many people no matter what religion or nationality they are will agree with me. So, for me this kind of behavior is “ PREDICTABLY RATIONAL. I call it rational because I know how and where I am going to answer for it.

     Another example is also from my life (you can consider it as unpredictably irrational, but it was the only rational decision for us): I had my first child delivered at home. If look at statistics there are more child deaths and complications at hospitals than at home but women still prefer hospitals or there are more traffic accidents than air crashes but people still consider cars as more safety vehicles than planes. This is actually what the book tells.