Upcoming Interview: Dan Ariely
22. Jun, 2010 
19 Comments
No matter what type of business you’re running, you’ll always have more success by having a greater understanding of your customers.
If you know their preferences, you can tailor your products to grab their interest.
If you know the challenges they face, you can create solutions to help.
But what if you knew WHY your customers make certain decisions? Then, you could naturally align what you have with their needs as shown by the decisions they make.
This is the reason the book “Predictably Irrational” grabbed our attention and when New York Times Best-Selling author Dan Ariely released the follow up book “The Upside of Irrationality”, we knew we wanted to ask him more.
But we need your help.
We want to include YOUR questions as well so leave your questions for Dan in the comments below and we’ll try our best to work as many as we can into the interview 
Many of my clients make decisions based on what they are fearful of. They let their fears get in the way of what they really want for themselves or for their businesses. Often the fear is not even real but is something that they imagine to be real. To me, that is irrational behavior. How do we help people get past fear based decisions?
Knowing that people often make irrational decisions, do we tailor our marketing and buying process around irrationality (identified trends and behaviors) — or is that simply introducing an element of predictability that seems too rational?
Do people make business decisions in a different way to personal decisions? If they are buying as part of a job will they come to a more logical decision than they do if buying for themselves.
Running a medical PREVENTION clinic I notice that Prevention does not seem to come in the top 3 things to pursue for most people. Rather still the waiting till something goes wrong approach. What type of approach in marketing would you suggest to get people to put health prevention with in their top 3 desires
I read Dan’s book a couple of months ago. I heard the story of the chocolate experiment (very interesting) and that’s what prompted me to buy his book… I highly recommend it, btw!
In all his experiments with free vs a purchase price, is free actually “valued” in that comparison? If the free thing was something more complex than a chocolate kiss, what would the likelihood be of the product being consumed (such as a free report or ebook)?
Does your research show we should seek to give people what they WANT and not what they NEED, as current marketing practices suggest? (that ‘need’ assessed based on our professional experience)
Also, how do you suggest people expand their imaginations to keep pace with an increasingly unknown & unfamiliar future?
Love your book!Thanks for being here.
Is there a qualitative difference in the irrational decisions people make about more personal issues (health, relationships) vs. such things as what to buy? Or are pretty much the same factors playing out in every aspect of our decision making?
What techniques would you suggest when someone’s perspective is NOT black or white but frequently ‘on the one hand’ but ‘on the other hand?” Especially with internet issues, info is always in flux.
Ruthan
I have read both his books and really enjoyed the Audi story. I sure hope Audi gets what they deserve.
My question is: why do people attach such a high value to things they own? I often work with business owners who want to sell their business but their asking price is totally irrational.
I’m surprised by how many people still think decisions are made based on rationality. In my experience, decisions are always made based on emotions and experiences, then justified with rationality in order to make them seem logic-based and therefore acceptable.
That’s just the way we’re trained to mould ourselves so we ‘fit in’.
Do you see the modern world’s fixation on rational logical methodology as having any correlation – in either direction – to the devaluation of intuition and irrationality (and caring) via association with gender stereotypes of male and female?
For those who don’t know about Dan, he did a great TED video that is worth checking out.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html
Thanks Ben!
We agree, Dan’s TED Talks are awesome.
I was impressed by the extensive behavioral research in your book! My question has to do Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the fact that our primitive brain (limbic system) will always prompt us FIRST to consider survival of self or loved ones – no matter how irrational it may seem to the conscious mind – as its prime directive. How, in your opinion, could we access and communicate with the one who forms and holds these “irrational” (organic) decicisons, and how could they be changed to be more in alignment with our so-called rational decisions?
I haven’t read the book – but I’m interested to know ‘How common is irrational behaviour, when it comes to buying patterns?’
With my online businesses, where I don’t get to ‘talk’ to my customers face to face – how can I use the understanding of irrational behaviour to convert more sales?
Wow, I hear the message but like Dan said, it’s hard to remember let alone leverage when I don’t have an expert delivering the message. I would love to have a 3 step process for transitioning from logical to closing sales based on emotions. Funny but I’m asking for a logical solution as I can’t imagine how long it will take me to learn this behavior, if ever.
Sorry I have never come across this author before. However the title interests me. As I have an online toy shop and also a family site I need to understand what prompts buying. What would be the best way to promote people to buy products which not only please individual family members but the family as a whole. I understand the emotional side but wonder if there are key words etc
I sometime wonder why people decide to purchase a product or service based on “is this better than the guy next door is using” concern.
I found that personality style highly affects a person’s decission making; hence there are certain personality styles [or types] that consistently make more irrational decissions [act first and think later], while another personality style will consistently bring more rational decissions [think first, then act]…
What’s are your thoughts – your findings – on this?