Behavioral economist Dan Ariely does a good job of outlining his field and its methods in Predictably Irrational: The hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions. Includes a look inside feature at Amazon. He explores such items as the 'cost' of zero cost, and how we interpret free in a very odd way. Relativity is a well known feature of pricing and how expectation can drive behavior. The ethics of behavior and how it can be manipulated. His techniques are interesting, though he seems to groping for the surprising. Are things always surprising, or is that another form of confirmation bias?
Even arousal is neatly investigated. He investigates this only with males. Why? Because his study ethics council would not approve any 'truth' for women that can be even remotely interpreted as negative? He knows what happened at Harvard. Have now read several books on behavioral economics and I always wonder what the influence of using say all MIT students versus a broader sample of people would be.
I agree, we are irrational. Not so sure about the predictable part. He also has a site blog which looks at items in the news as they are interpreted through this lens.
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