While most of us think of ourselves as rational human beings, we are much more prone to irrational behaviour than we actually realise.

Our behaviour and our decision making are influenced by an array of psychological undercurrents that are powerful and persuasive. Even more startling, when they converge, they become even more powerful, and can have far reaching impacts on the decisions we make.

Ori Brafman and Ron Brafman outline a number of these undercurrents in their excellent book 'Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour'.

This post explores the first two undercurrents, Loss Aversion and the Power of Commitment.