Irresistible cover art

Irresistible

Why We Can't Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Irresistible

By: Adam Alter
Narrated by: Adam Alter
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

How many times have you checked your phone today? Why are messaging apps, email and social media so hard to resist? How come we always end up watching another episode?

In recent years, media and technology have perfected the lucrative art of gaining and holding our attention. This extraordinary feat has changed the behaviour of billions of people, and especially the young: by current medical standards, we are experiencing an unprecedented global pandemic of addiction. But what exactly is an addiction? And what, if anything, might we do about it?

From cliff-hangers to earworms, from religion to pornography, and from the awesome allure of the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app to the unexpected benefits of the 'butt-brush effect', Irresistible blends fascinating stories with ingenious science to explain how and why we all got hooked. Revealing the surprising causes and sometimes bizarre nature of addiction, this book will equip you with the tools and understanding you need to navigate our irresistible new world.

©2017 Adam Alter (P)2017 Random House Audio Compulsive Disorders Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences Health

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Drunk Tank Pink cover art
The Precipice cover art
The Comfort Crisis cover art
The Future of Happiness cover art
The Minimalist Home cover art
Indistractable cover art
Trapped in the Web: How I Liberated Myself from Internet Addiction, and How You Can Too cover art
No: The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work and Home cover art
The Molecule of More cover art
Hacking the Unconscious cover art
Captivology cover art
Bored and Brilliant cover art
The Upside of Irrationality cover art
Time and How to Spend It cover art

Critic reviews

"Truly addictive." (Malcolm Gladwell)
"Brilliant." (Susan Cain)
"Essential." (Charles Duhigg)
All stars
Most relevant
once you start understanding how you are being sucked into the world of addiction with your smartphone or computer games you play, you will rethink a lot of things.

highly recommended book!

scary as hell

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listening to this book is irresistable. Makes you really think about how you spend your days.

What a great book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I would highly recommend this audio book. I enjoyed Alter’s delivery and investment into his work. It is a strong mix of research, real world examples and personal accounts. I was struck by Alter’s disclosure of his own tendencies to become addicted to tech.

As well as providing a commentary on how addiction is built into social media and gaming, and the social implications of that, he provides a solid introduction to behavioural addiction in general - both its mechanisms and also how the understanding of it evolved over time.

Extremely eye opening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really makes you think about those leisure activities that you thought benign, innocuous and harmless. In many cases they are except when they become irresistibly addictive.

Really makes you think

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Addicted...lost cause? Hopefully not. Will be using Russell Brand's Recovery to tackle this problem. Otherwise my life flashing before my eyes at the end will be 2D!!!

I'm screwed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews