When we get near money, our decision-making processes often go haywire. It’s like placing a compass next to a magnet-we can’t figure out which direction is north, and our finances can head south as a result.

Within the growing academic field of behavioral finance, researchers are discovering just how easily we are swayed by subtle emotional forces, no matter how hard we try to make rational choices. Do you hate losing a hundred dollars more than you love receiving a hundred dollars? Are you reluctant to make an investment if the people around you aren’t doing so? These kinds of mental biases have a huge-though often unnoticed-influence on our decisions about money.

In The Foolish Corner, finance expert John Howe offers an introduction to these biases, showing you how to locate them in your own approach to money and uncover their effects on your life. Learn how to head off these subliminal influences-and sometimes even use them to your advantage.