Assocation Leaders Called "Irrational"

(Webster, NY - November 2010) You may think you act from a sense of common wisdom, but according to author Dan Ariely, your behavior is inspired by what he calls “predictable irrationality.” But don’t take it personally; he says that about everybody.

Using simple experiments Dan studies how people – including association leaders and their members - actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational. His interests span a wide range of daily behaviors such as buying (or not), saving (or not), ordering food in restaurants, pain management, procrastination, dishonesty, and decision making under different emotional states.

Dan is the author the New York Times Bestsellers Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions and The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. Dan is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, where he holds appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the School of Medicine, and the department of Economics. He is also a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.

We Are Predictably Irrational –and why associations should care

Do you know why we so often promise ourselves to diet and exercise, only to have the thought vanish when the dessert cart rolls by?

Do you know why we sometimes find ourselves excitedly buying things we don’t really need? Or at prices that we would otherwise concede are beyond our budget?

Do you know why we still have a headache after taking a five-cent aspirin, but why that same headache vanishes when the aspirin costs 50 cents?

Do you know why people who have been asked to recall the Ten Commandments tend to be more honest (at least immediately afterward) than those who haven’t? Or why honor codes actually do reduce dishonesty in the workplace? Dan Ariely provides answers to these and many other questions that have implications for your personal life, for your business life, and for the way you look at the world.

For businesses, these irrationalities help unlock our understanding of common behaviors and choices in shopping, pricing, investing and saving, employee recruitment and selection, office politics and a myriad of other choices and interactions.

As a bonus you will also learn how much fun social science can be, and how to see more clearly the causes for our everyday behaviors, including the many cases in which we are predictably irrational. Dan’s research on human behavior has been published in leading psychology, economics, and marketing and management research journals, and he will be delivering a keynote presentation at digitalNow 2011, being held April 6 – 11 at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

digitalNow will be dedicated to helping association executives better understand how to be mobile, and how to take advantage of mobile technologies in order to add value and create emotional engagement with members in our ever-expanding Mobile universe. Based on solid research and designed in collaboration with Disney Institute and a distinguished Advisory Group leaders, DigitalNow has earned a reputation as the premier leadership summit for association executives.

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DigitalNow 2011 Call for Papers now open!
Proposals are now being accepted for workshop presentations on April 7 and 8 at DigitalNow 2011.

If you are an expert with new proven research that can help members of the DigitalNow community understand and address these issues, you may be qualified.

Please visit the DigitalNow 2011 Call for Papers site for complete details and application guidelines.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com