Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational

Why do people become more eager once they obtain the book they have wanted to read? Somewhere in or on each hard copy book is the raving reviews from newspapers, professionals and other media sources and renowned individuals that heighten readers’ anticipation for the novel. On the back cover of Dan Ariely’s bestselling Predictably Irrational, authors, chairs, Nobel Laureates, and professors acclaim the book’s insights about the cognitive workings of the human mind, style of writing, and potential of widespread popularity. Conversely, negative opinions from next-door neighbors and work colleagues can be found online about the same book.
One ‘critic’ thinks there is “too little science; too much opinion” in Predictably Irrational. According
However, first off, how is the book with “endless anecdotes, opinion, and speculation” “intellectually lazy”? The first question posed in the summary is: “Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?” which implies the book would discuss real life situations, and would not be a data-heavy “mini-textbook”. Ariely may also not have explored other possible explanations because that would make for a long-winded, strange book that weakens his argument--the largest being that humans make irrational choices because our surroundings force us to. With this in mind, I don’t think the critic was very attentive to the details--Ariely states, “If we can’t rely on the market forces of supply and demand to set optimal market prices, and we can't count on free-market mechanism to help us maximize our utility, then we may need to look elsewhere. This is especially the case with society’s essentials, such as health care, medicine, water, electricity… (Ariely 48).” If anything, this review ironically has “too little science; too much opinion”, that is not supported by Predictably Irrational, and overextends what Ariely discusses. I also think the author of this critique is more arrogant than