William Poundstone

William Poundstone is the best-selling author of fourteen books. His Fortune's Formula was Amazon Editors' Pick for #1 nonfiction book of 2005. Poundstone has written for The New York Times book review and op-ed page, the Village Voice, Esquire, Harpers, The Believer, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. He has appeared on the Today Show, David Letterman, CBS Morning News, Larry King, and hundreds of radio talk shows throughout the world. Poundstone was writer and co-producer of two primetime ABC-TV specials based on his books.

Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, Poundstone studied physics at MIT under a National Merit Scholarship. Many of his writings concern the social impact of scientific ideas. In his blog Priceless and the accompanying book, Poundstone will examine the hidden psychology of prices: how we determine a "fair deal" in the supermarket, the boardroom, or anywhere else. "Some of the most important psychology of the past fifty years deals with how we make decisions," Poundstone explains. "Those findings are now beginning to be applied to the kind of price decisions we make every day. We're always asking ourselves, ‘is that too much to pay?' It turns out that this common decision can be influenced by all sorts of subtle psychological tricks. The science is affecting the design of price tags, menus, rebates, ‘sale' ads, cell-phone plans, infomercials, tort demands, and corporate buyouts. In a lot of ways, prices are the most pervasive hidden persuaders of all."

He lives in Los Angeles.