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the_rain's review against another edition
3.0
The author does present the evolution of behavioral economics along with his career and what lead him to think of certain important ideas in Behavioral Economics. I found that I am not able to learn much about Behavioral Economics itself as I am still a newbie. May be in future, if I re-read this, I might enjoy more. Richard Thaler is undoubtedly a pioneer.
aislingnuttall7's review against another edition
4.0
- Acting inconsistently with the idealised behaviour of econs proposed by economic theory e.g. being happier about 96/137 than 72/100
- Econs make a lot of bad predictions = dangerous
- Economics is the most influential social science? At least in terms of policy change?
- Economic theory = rationalised choices = constrained optimism = unbiased
- Bias is a feature of human nature
- Econs: cash is the best possible gift. What is the point of birthdays?
- Econs: hunger on thurs does not affect how much food you buy for sunday
- Econs = Mr Spock
- Theories based on econs should not be discarded as they are good starting points for more realistic models
- Psych experimentation methods can be utilised in economics
- Stop basing policy decisions on flawed analyses, that econs model human behaviour
- Behavioural economics = economics done with strong injections of good psychology = more interesting = deeper understanding of human behaviour aids business/economy
- ELEMENT OF EMOTION IN PUBLIC POLICY - sick girl > sales tax to save hospital
- The Endowment Effect - the finding that people are more likely to retain an object they own than acquire that same object when they do not own it - handing over actual cash is painful
- E.g. have a lottery ticket, 82% kept it instead of getting cash. When had cash that equates to lottery ticket, only 32% spent it on lottery ticket. We keep what we start of with.
- Opportunity costs (not getting a tip) are better than monetary costs
- Price paid for tickets should not affect choice whether to go to the game - costs are already sunk
- Removing cashews from the dinner party = irrational to econs bc more choices are always better to fewer here
- Hindsight bias - we recognise this bias in others but not ourselves
- Economic theory contains error - ‘errors balance each other out’ = wrong. These are not random
- Systematic bias in economic theory
- Only economists think like econs, and even economists are human
- Prospect theory values certainty - humans like certainty - people act differently to losses than they do to gains - hard to test irl
- Economists care more abt what ppl do as opposed to what they say they do
- Economics = the social science that studies how people interact with things of value; in particular, the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
- How economic theory DOES NOT WORK
- Studying ppl in their natural habitats = more accurate but more difficult
- Meant to be a theory of everyone, not just experts. Most people aren’t experts.
- Mental accounting = how do people think about money
- The poor behave more like econs bc opportunity costs are highly salient to them
- Losses are weighed twice as heavily as gains
- Humans see bargains and rip-offs and expect them depending on where good is bought from, econs don’t experience transaction utility
- Sunk cost = when money cannot be retrieved e.g. for dresses bought that your daughter does not wear = humans care about these, econs do bc it is rational
- Budgets influence behaviour - if entertainment budget for week has already been spent then less likely to go out again and spend more
- There are exceptions to budgeting if their prices are dropped e.g. gasoline in 2007 financial crisis
- People are risk-seeking when it comes to losses, would rather gamble it away
- What we want vs what we choose. Economics assumes choice means preference, that we act on our preferences
- Economic theory assumes self-control/temptation problems do not exist (Adam Smith introduced it)
- Normative, e.g. pythagoras theorem - finding side based on other sides/known entities
- Timing matters - consumption matters more to you now than later
- Self-control experiments in psych - Marshmallow, Walter Mischel, predicted life outcomes, and Ainslie on animal eating times w levers
- Economic transaction has to be seen as fair - not fair for shack owner to price so highly
- Experimental philosophy is not moral philosophy
- Gauging - snow shovel price raised the day after a blizzard - makes economic sense, as demand goes up so does price and those who buy them truly value them
- Bounded rationality - we make rational decisions but within the boundaries of our mental capacities and info available to us. We seek satisfactory solutions as opposed to optimal ones
- Age, income, life expectancy = factors affecting household spending
- Using findings of behavioural science to help governmental policy - conditional cooperators - people do it if others conform
- Misbehaving occurs least in finance - strongest field for economic theory
- Econs do not exist - empirical work cannot be done on them
- Econs are not followers of fashion!
- Econs make a lot of bad predictions = dangerous
- Economics is the most influential social science? At least in terms of policy change?
- Economic theory = rationalised choices = constrained optimism = unbiased
- Bias is a feature of human nature
- Econs: cash is the best possible gift. What is the point of birthdays?
- Econs: hunger on thurs does not affect how much food you buy for sunday
- Econs = Mr Spock
- Theories based on econs should not be discarded as they are good starting points for more realistic models
- Psych experimentation methods can be utilised in economics
- Stop basing policy decisions on flawed analyses, that econs model human behaviour
- Behavioural economics = economics done with strong injections of good psychology = more interesting = deeper understanding of human behaviour aids business/economy
- ELEMENT OF EMOTION IN PUBLIC POLICY - sick girl > sales tax to save hospital
- The Endowment Effect - the finding that people are more likely to retain an object they own than acquire that same object when they do not own it - handing over actual cash is painful
- E.g. have a lottery ticket, 82% kept it instead of getting cash. When had cash that equates to lottery ticket, only 32% spent it on lottery ticket. We keep what we start of with.
- Opportunity costs (not getting a tip) are better than monetary costs
- Price paid for tickets should not affect choice whether to go to the game - costs are already sunk
- Removing cashews from the dinner party = irrational to econs bc more choices are always better to fewer here
- Hindsight bias - we recognise this bias in others but not ourselves
- Economic theory contains error - ‘errors balance each other out’ = wrong. These are not random
- Systematic bias in economic theory
- Only economists think like econs, and even economists are human
- Prospect theory values certainty - humans like certainty - people act differently to losses than they do to gains - hard to test irl
- Economists care more abt what ppl do as opposed to what they say they do
- Economics = the social science that studies how people interact with things of value; in particular, the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
- How economic theory DOES NOT WORK
- Studying ppl in their natural habitats = more accurate but more difficult
- Meant to be a theory of everyone, not just experts. Most people aren’t experts.
- Mental accounting = how do people think about money
- The poor behave more like econs bc opportunity costs are highly salient to them
- Losses are weighed twice as heavily as gains
- Humans see bargains and rip-offs and expect them depending on where good is bought from, econs don’t experience transaction utility
- Sunk cost = when money cannot be retrieved e.g. for dresses bought that your daughter does not wear = humans care about these, econs do bc it is rational
- Budgets influence behaviour - if entertainment budget for week has already been spent then less likely to go out again and spend more
- There are exceptions to budgeting if their prices are dropped e.g. gasoline in 2007 financial crisis
- People are risk-seeking when it comes to losses, would rather gamble it away
- What we want vs what we choose. Economics assumes choice means preference, that we act on our preferences
- Economic theory assumes self-control/temptation problems do not exist (Adam Smith introduced it)
- Normative, e.g. pythagoras theorem - finding side based on other sides/known entities
- Timing matters - consumption matters more to you now than later
- Self-control experiments in psych - Marshmallow, Walter Mischel, predicted life outcomes, and Ainslie on animal eating times w levers
- Economic transaction has to be seen as fair - not fair for shack owner to price so highly
- Experimental philosophy is not moral philosophy
- Gauging - snow shovel price raised the day after a blizzard - makes economic sense, as demand goes up so does price and those who buy them truly value them
- Bounded rationality - we make rational decisions but within the boundaries of our mental capacities and info available to us. We seek satisfactory solutions as opposed to optimal ones
- Age, income, life expectancy = factors affecting household spending
- Using findings of behavioural science to help governmental policy - conditional cooperators - people do it if others conform
- Misbehaving occurs least in finance - strongest field for economic theory
- Econs do not exist - empirical work cannot be done on them
- Econs are not followers of fashion!
smolgalaxybrain's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
zuomiriam's review against another edition
5.0
Whereas Nudge is a thorough examination of behavioral economics principles, Misbehaving, as indicated in the title, focuses more on the process of how Thaler and his colleagues built a new, thriving sector of economics. It's really quite fascinating how this field has grown throughout the years; a must-read for behavioral economics buffs and for those interested in the history of academia.
mchester24's review against another edition
5.0
I had this book on my kindle for a while and kept pushing it aside for other things to read first, and now I'm really mad it took me so long to get to it! Thaler takes the reader chronologically on his own journey in the generation of 'behavioral economics' field-- from helping to create the field to now seeing it being used by governments across the country and being accepted by the previously stone-walled general field of economics.
The crux of the book, and behavioral economics generally, is that it is foolish to assume everyone has all the data and makes the best choices for their desired goals, they get influenced by outside factors, framing, mental shortcuts, etc. That is what makes them human, as opposed to an 'econ'-- the term for how a person would behave if they were 100% rational. Thaler does a great job breaking down this concept with various examples and studies, to the point that I ended up finding plenty of examples of my own 'misbehaving' as a human everyday (and isn't that really what you want in these type of pop-sci books?).
I loved this book, and it definitely provided me with some new tools to observe the world. I was thrilled to hear while I was almost done the news that Thaler received this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, and hopefully that will lead to this book reaching more people's bookshelves.
The crux of the book, and behavioral economics generally, is that it is foolish to assume everyone has all the data and makes the best choices for their desired goals, they get influenced by outside factors, framing, mental shortcuts, etc. That is what makes them human, as opposed to an 'econ'-- the term for how a person would behave if they were 100% rational. Thaler does a great job breaking down this concept with various examples and studies, to the point that I ended up finding plenty of examples of my own 'misbehaving' as a human everyday (and isn't that really what you want in these type of pop-sci books?).
I loved this book, and it definitely provided me with some new tools to observe the world. I was thrilled to hear while I was almost done the news that Thaler received this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, and hopefully that will lead to this book reaching more people's bookshelves.
s166harth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
wintrovia's review against another edition
4.0
I studied economics when I was fifteen and haven’t had much to do with it since. This book is far more interesting than Mr Sykes’ long monologues about supply and demand but still falls somewhat short of being genuinely entertaining.
The book goes through Thaler’s career in chronological order and covers a lot of his studies, theories and publications. It also features some of the spats he had with rival academics which I suppose are added in for conflict but I felt they were a bit tedious and felt a bit like he was using the platform of the book to settle scores.
There are some genuinely insightful moments in the book and I feel like I’ve got a better grasp of behavioural economics now but it’s not always a gripping read. There’s possibly too much emphasis on the specifics of studies and the explanations are a bit laboured at times.
I felt like I wanted to skip ahead in some sections, as the point is often quite clear early on but more and more evidence is paraded out to really hammer home how right his theories are. This was particularly true of the sections about the stock market, which dominated the second half of the book.
The area which I found most interesting was the section about nudge theory, having already read Thaler’s book on this specific area. It was interesting to hear about how his theories had been applied by politicians and the strange meetings he had with members of the Conservative party in the UK.
I didn’t dislike this book but I didn’t feel compelled to keep reading it and found myself coming back to it with more a sense of duty than relish. There’s some interesting stuff but it feels like a thorough edit could knock a hundred and fifty pages off and make it a better book.
The book goes through Thaler’s career in chronological order and covers a lot of his studies, theories and publications. It also features some of the spats he had with rival academics which I suppose are added in for conflict but I felt they were a bit tedious and felt a bit like he was using the platform of the book to settle scores.
There are some genuinely insightful moments in the book and I feel like I’ve got a better grasp of behavioural economics now but it’s not always a gripping read. There’s possibly too much emphasis on the specifics of studies and the explanations are a bit laboured at times.
I felt like I wanted to skip ahead in some sections, as the point is often quite clear early on but more and more evidence is paraded out to really hammer home how right his theories are. This was particularly true of the sections about the stock market, which dominated the second half of the book.
The area which I found most interesting was the section about nudge theory, having already read Thaler’s book on this specific area. It was interesting to hear about how his theories had been applied by politicians and the strange meetings he had with members of the Conservative party in the UK.
I didn’t dislike this book but I didn’t feel compelled to keep reading it and found myself coming back to it with more a sense of duty than relish. There’s some interesting stuff but it feels like a thorough edit could knock a hundred and fifty pages off and make it a better book.
drapoco's review against another edition
5.0
Misbehaving is a tale of Behavioral Economics. The book outlines important people and cases without becoming overly complex. This is a feat since it is a book about the clash between of fields.
The book begins in the seventies and ends in the 10s. By having a chronological thread Misbehaving has a steady flow and introduces people, books, and places as they appear through the arc of the story. Sometimes it feels like a lot of namedropping. the Richard Thaler is not to blame for when things happen because that is when they happened.
Misbehaving is not hard read but it should be read consistently and in small chunks if you want most of the nutriment provided. I had numerous contemplations and talks based on every single chapter of Misbehaving and it will shape my future thinking.
This is my second sitting with Misbehaving, and I still learned new things and relearned things that I had forgotten. Therefore, Misbehaving is put on my list of books that I will re-read.
Overall, Misbehaving is an inspiring book that should be read by everybody who wants to know why we do as we do. This could be a fine companion if you read books on marketing, business management or self-improvement. Just to name a few of the fields where Misbehaving could be a nifty fit.
The book begins in the seventies and ends in the 10s. By having a chronological thread Misbehaving has a steady flow and introduces people, books, and places as they appear through the arc of the story. Sometimes it feels like a lot of namedropping. the Richard Thaler is not to blame for when things happen because that is when they happened.
Misbehaving is not hard read but it should be read consistently and in small chunks if you want most of the nutriment provided. I had numerous contemplations and talks based on every single chapter of Misbehaving and it will shape my future thinking.
This is my second sitting with Misbehaving, and I still learned new things and relearned things that I had forgotten. Therefore, Misbehaving is put on my list of books that I will re-read.
Overall, Misbehaving is an inspiring book that should be read by everybody who wants to know why we do as we do. This could be a fine companion if you read books on marketing, business management or self-improvement. Just to name a few of the fields where Misbehaving could be a nifty fit.