New, 21st anniversary edition, with a new foreword by Ben Goldacre, author of Ba
d Science and Bad Pharma, and an afterword by James Ball, covering developments
in our understanding of irrationality over the last two decades. Why do doctors,
army generals, high-ranking government officials and other people in positions
of power make bad decisions that cause harm to others? Why do prizes serve no us
eful function? Why are punishments so ineffective? Why is interviewing such an u
nsatisfactory method of selection? Irrationality is a challenging and thought-pr
ovoking book that draws on statistical concepts, probability theory and a mass o
f intriguing research to expose the failings of human reasoning, judgement and i
ntuition.
