Predictably Irrational

is the title of an excellent book by Dan Ariely. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
We don't have an internal value meter...rather we focus on the relative advantage of one thing over another
Our first decisions resonate over a long sequence of decisions.
With everything you do you should train yourself to question your repeated behaviour.
Humans are intrinsically afraid of loss.
For market norms to emerge it is sufficient to mention money.
Money, it turns out, is very often the most expensive way to motivate people.
We fall in love with what we already have.
Expectations can influence nearly every aspect of our lives.
The majority of people cheated, and they cheated just a little bit.
What a difference there is in cheating for money versus cheating for something that is a step away from cash!