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Misbehaving cover

Misbehaving

The Making of Behavioral Economics

How economics learned that humans are not perfectly rational.

by Richard H. Thaler

Thaler tells the story of how behavioral economics grew from a fringe idea into a mainstream discipline. He recounts his own career and the resistance he faced arguing that real people, unlike textbook agents, make predictable errors. The book blends memoir with an accessible tour of the field's key experiments and ideas.

Founders constantly design choices for customers, employees, and themselves, and this book shows how predictable human biases shape those decisions. Understanding why people deviate from rational models helps you price, market, and build products that fit how people actually behave.

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