Introduction Lessons from Procrastination and Medical Side Effects 1
Hepatitis and procrastination
The movie treatment
What we should do and behavioral economics
From food to incompatible design
Taking irrationality into account
Part I THE UNEXPECTED WAYS WE DEFY LOGIC AT WORK
Chapter 1 Paying More for Less: Why Big Bonuses Don't Always Work 17
Of mice and men, or how high stakes affect rats and bankers
Measuring the effects of a CEO-sized bonus in India
Loss aversion: why bonuses aren't really bonuses
Working under stress: just how clutch are "clutch" NBA players?
Stage fright and the social side of high stakes
Making compensation work for society
Chapter 2 The Meaning of Labor: What Legos Can Teach Us about the Joy of Work 53
You are what you do: identity and labor
The pains of wasted work
Lessons from a parrot---and some hungry rats
Searching for meaning while playing with Legos
Making work matter again
Chapter 3 The IKEA Effect: Why We Overvalue What We Make 83
Why IKEA makes us blush (with pride)
Cooking lessons: finding a balance between just adding water and baking an apple pie from scratch
The real value of a thousand origami cranes (and frogs)
Customize it!
Why "almost done" doesn't do much for us
Why we need labors of love
Chapter 4 The Not-Invented-Here Bias: Why "My" Ideas Are Better than "Yours" 107
Mark Twain describes a universal form of stupidity
"Anything you can do I can do better": why we favor our own ideas
The toothbrush theory
What we can learn from Edison's mistake 7
Chapter 5 The Case for Revenge: What Makes Us Seek Justice? 123
The joys of payback
The bailouts and pounds of flesh
One man's quest for revenge against Audi
The etiquette of revenge
Companies beware: when consumers go public
Uses and misuses of revenge
Making amends
Part II THE UNEXPECTED WAYS WE DEFY LOGIC AT HOME
Chapter 6 On Adaptation: Why We Get Used to Things (but Not All Things, and Not Always) 157
Frogs: to boil or not to boil?
Adapting to visual cues and pain thresholds
Hedonic adaptation: from houses to spouses and beyond
How the hedonic treadmill keeps us buying---and buying more
How we can break and enhance adaptation
Making our adaptability work for us
Chapter 7 Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market 191
A personal adaptation
When mind and body don't get along
Sticking to our own (more or less hot) kind in dating: do we settle or adapt?
Let's ask the Internet: dating sites and romantic criteria
How I met your mother
Chapter 8 When a Market Fails: An Example from Online Dating 213
The function of the yenta
The dysfunctional singles market (as if you didn't already know)
The difference between your date and a digital camera
An exemplary failure in dating
How dating sites skew our perceptions
Ideas for a better dating future
Chapter 9 On Empathy and Emotion: Why We Respond to One Person Who Needs Help but Not to Many 237
Baby Jessica versus the Rwandan genocide
The difference between an individual and a statistic
Identification: needed for more than buying beer
How the American Cancer Society reels us in
The effect of rational thinking on giving
Overcoming our inability to confront big problems
Chapter 10 The Long-Term Effects of Short-Term Emotions: Why We Shouldn't Act on Our Negative Feelings 257
Don't tread on me: my colleague learns a lesson about rudeness
The dark side of impulses
Deciding under the influence (of emotions)
The importance of "irrelevant" emotions
What a canoe can tell you about your love life
Chapter 11 Lessons from Our Irrationalities: Why We Need to Test Everything 281
A decision about life and limb
Gideon's biblical empiricism
The wisdom of leeches
Lessons learned, hopefully
Thanks 297
List of Collaborators 299
Notes 305
Bibliography and Additional Readings 307
Index 319