Why do text messages cost money while e-mails are free? How did Apple persuade people to pay for music instead of downloading it for nothing? The answer is simple; prices are collective hallucination. William Poundstone reveals the hidden psychology of value.

15,000 of the trade paperback sold in the first month

We are hard-wired to believe that the world is more predictable than it is. We chase 'winning streaks' that are often just illusions, and we are all too predictable exactly when we try hardest not to be. In the 1970s, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky coined the phrase 'representativeness' to describe the psychology of this behaviour. Since then representativeness has been used by auditors to catch people fiddling their tax returns and by hedge fund managers to reap billions from the emotions of small investors. Now Poundstone for the first time makes these techniques fun, easy, and profitable...