Undoubtedly, consumer behaviour lies in the centre of interest of all marketers. In the end, it is consumers who pull out their wallets or credit cards and decide on a particular purchase contributing to the profits of the company. However, does that mean that they are completely aware of the decisions they are making? In other words, are they rational in their choices?

Many researches aimed at answering this question by listing multiple factors such as psychological, social or situational which affect consumer’s decision process. There have been also many studies on the shortcuts consumers take in order to shorten the tedious process of making up one’s mind in the presence of ever growing number of products and services. However, the debate on how good consumers are at weighting out the pros and cons of their decisions remains open and each year brings new contributions to the subject.

One of the books devoted to the subject of decision making is Dan Ariely’s book titled Predictably Irrational. The book comprises of Ariely’s research on the rationality of consumer’s choices providing interesting insights for both marketers and consumers. Apart from its informative value Predictably Irrational is a great read demonstrating how irrationality affects all aspects of our lives. One of the very first concepts introduced by the author is the power of a decoy, defined as a slightly worse version of a given item. The choice between two equally attractive options is difficult to predict, however if one of them becomes accompanied by its decoy a great majority of consumers tend to turn to the better counterpart, completely overlooking the equally attractive alternative. Surprisingly, this holds true not only in the world of marketing where it is vastly applied, but also in the realm of dating. Thus, Ariely humorously advises to pick wisely whom to take with to meet women or men on a Friday night. The book does not completely resolve the mystery of decision making, nor aims at doing that, but it certainly makes one much more aware of the intricacy of this supposedly known process.

Dan Ariely: Are we in control of our own decisions?

source: http://www.ted.com/talk/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html