This book is all about the forces that influence our behavior and decision making. Each chapter of this book describes a particular force that influences our behavior in irrational but predictable ways. The author, Dan Ariely is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University.
How To Create Better Beliefs
Many of the beliefs that hold you back from living your best life are not true -- at least not in the objective, scientific sense. In other words, they are not absolute, inviolable laws of nature. Rather, they are only subjectively true to you. The reason they seem true is because of a quirky mechanism your brain has.
Psychology has a name for this mechanism. It’s called confirmation bias, or the tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms your pre-existing beliefs or theories. Basically, when you think something might be true, your brain immediately goes to work to find more evidence that supports your theory.
This tendency to jump to conclusions about our theories is