Bostonist Podcast: MIT Economist Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely
Predictably Irrational
Harvard Book Store
Monday, February 25, 7:00pm
Free
Ariely's Official Site

Dan Ariely is a MIT economist with big ideas. He has spent his 20 year academic career questioning the assumptions that make classical economics work. Classical economists believe that given the choice, most people behave rationally. That is, most people make decisions that give them pleasure and make their lives easier.

But of course we don't actually behave that way. Ariely's research has shown that people make a lot of mistakes, irrational mistakes. And we make the same mistakes over and over again. Ariely's new book Predictably Irrational summarizes his research conclusions in an easy to read and conversational style. The book may not be a bombshell to working economists, but it offers the lay reader uncommon insight into the numbskull economic choices we make, why we make them, and what we can do to change.

Listen to Bostonist's podcast interview with Ariely and find out who's more politically correct: Harvard's students or MIT's.