Reuters via The New York Times | Around the turn of every year, bankers can think of only one thing: the size of their bonuses. Even beyond bonus season, they run different scenarios and assumptions, trying to calculate their number.

This distracts them so much that the bigger the bonus at stake, the worse the performance, according to behavioral economist Dan Ariely, who lays out his theory in his new book “The Upside of Irrationality.”

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