Book Review 'Sway"

I'm a fan of pop-psychology books. Why? They are easy to understand and yet keep me thinking. I love to read these types of books while at work (I'm a telefundraiser at an outbound call center) or on the bus or on trips. They don't require a lot of critical thinking or focus to get the gist of the material.

Sway is really no different.

These types of books are made for anyone who thinks the title is interesting to be able to pick it up and get a basic understanding of some very complex ideas. In Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior, the authors, who are brothers, take a look at basically why people do things that don't make sense. While the book is billed as looking at things from a psychological point of view, as always the blatanly obvious use of behavior analytic concepts is ignored, that is until at least half-way through the book.

Perhaps it's because I'm a graduate student and I read much more academic and challenging texts on these subject matters quite frequently, but I was not expecting to be impressed by this book. The last pop-psych book I read left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, I felt like Sway was a fairly decent book. It wasn't easy and full of unsupported examples (like the amazingly popular Freakanomics by Levitt and Dubner), but rather it eases a novice reader in with some clear examples that are very well supported by psychological concepts and critical thinking. About halfway through the book even I was required to put my thinking cap on to better digest the premise laid forth by the authors (one of whom is a PhD in psychology and the other an MBA). And while I felt they did a decent job, as far as pop-psych books go, I still feel that the focus on illuminating the 'hidden psychological factors' behind motivation and illogical behavior was something to be desired.

Then again, I'm a behaviorist, and we are a fickle type of 'psychologist'. If we can't see it or record it, it doesn't matter. We're all about what signals someone to behave, how they behave, and why they either continue or discontinue to behave, and the data to back it up.

So, if you are in either field, Sway is an interesting read. If you aren't, but are interested in why people do stuff that doesn't make sense, Sway will definetly make you think. I'd recommend picking up a copy either way.

Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman, was published by Broadway Books, New York, in 2008. It is available at bookstores in paperback, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.