Some of this was covered by Dan Ariely in his TED talk on the "Predictably Irrational."<p><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_o...</a>