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When we make decisions we think we are in control and make rational choices, but: is it really like that? Do we really have control over our actions, over how we manage our money, our time, our energy and our emotions? We like to think so, but Dan Ariely, Professor of Consumer Psychology at the MIT and author of the book ‘Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions‘, can demonstrate that we are not quite the masters of our decisions that we like to think we are.

In a supermarket, symbol of our decisions as consumers, Ariely explains to Eduard Punset that standard economy bases all its models on the presupposition that we all rationally weigh up all the ramifications of any potential decision before taking it. However, the new branch of behavioural economics demonstrates with many empirical tests that our behaviour is not only usually foolish but our irrationality can also be predicted.

We all commit the same type of mistake over and over again owing to the basic structure of our brain. We are animals that haven’t yet developed to live in an environment like the present. Evolution has given us emotions adapted to an environment in which swift reactions without thinking gave us the chance to survive. However, these emotions are still programmed in our brain and continue to influence us enormously when it comes to making decisions.