These days when there are lots of financial related scandals and cheating this topic might be particularly relevant.
I am not sure it is the best talk I ever gave, but if you have 17 min to spare…
Hi, I’m Dan Ariely. I do research in behavioral economics and try to describe it in plain language. These findings have enriched my life, and my hope is that they will do the same for you.
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves
Order now:
The Upside of Irrationality, explores some positive and some negative ways that irrationality plays out in our lives.
When we make decisions we think we're in control. But are we?
Excerpts and Videos
So, you always get a standing ovation? I’m going to have to start auditing your courses!
I just watched your TED lecture. It was even more powerful and entertaining than your recent WNYC interview. You’ve given me a lot to contemplate. And your personal journey from the burn unit to the cutting edge of Behavioral Economics is inspirational.
Kol Hakavod!
It’s awesome!
Prof Ariely,
I wonder if as Behavioral Economics gathers more and more data and comes to greater agreement on various important behavioral indicators such as cheating and so on, if there isn’t a model to be created to predict behavior more accurately. Patterns and algorithms will surface from BE data and it seems natural that BE will move in the direction of developing models that could help inform policy makers about the efficacy of their decisions. Enter the new paradigm.
-Jeff
http://www.economixt.com
Dr. Ariely,
I just saw a similar talk you did this morning in Charlottesville and thought it was outstanding. I blogged briefly about it here. I hope you will stick around town for a few days and analyze the spending habits of UVA students and Thomas Jefferson.
Wistar Murray
Dr. Ariely,
You’ve probably listened so many times to the comment I’m about to make, but, anyway, there it is: you are amazing. Everything you went though, your research, your career… Your book is simply one of the best I’ve ever read. I’m an attorney in Brasil and I work for an American company managing the ethics and compliance department. Needless to say how deeply my job is linked to your cientifical conclusions and how I could clearly figure that out. It all makes complete sense!
Wish I could meet you or see you in person one day… or, who knows, become one of your students?
Irrationally yours
Thank you for great talk.
Now I am going through information available on your website.
One technical remark, many links on demonstration page are not opening correctly.
For example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5Dawn9Ifc%20
Thank you and keep your research,
Ada
Dan,
Seems I am not the only one that believes you did great! And it is perhaps irrational to think of it as “not sure it is the best talk”.
First of all, your performance delivered both the content of your ideas AND tryly demonstrated a mensch on stage. Guess the latter is what made people stand up (oh! I miss the TED:s).
For me personally the highlight was that you went back to the nurses, shared you well grounded insights as well as learned from the meeting, and told us about it.
Then I became curious about your notion on “no child left behind act”. Will dig into that.
/richard
p.s. you should really upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and please install the subscribe-to-comments plugin d.s.
Oops, forgot to say THANK YOU!!!!
/Richard
(and noted that I, or rather the browser) pasted a stupid web address to a post and not the site in my first comment, sorry about it)
Thanks for the TED talk. Absolutely fantastic. I think Malcolm Gladwell has met his match.
On most of your studies your cohort appear to be in the range from 18-25 years old. It would be interesting to see if there was differences for older age groups.
I did enjoy the book very much.
Regards
Hi, I just watched your TED talk, amazing! I very much enjoyed it. My youngest brother spent a month in a burns hospital so I understand the emotional pain of the caregivers, but the caregivers I met, I would hope, would listen to the patient!
Thank you very much for letting me see some of your work.
Britt Burton…
Just watched your TED talk. Have never come across you or your work before, but the speech was so good I decided to track down your blog, and will probably get hold off your book too
Great stuff
ראיתי את ההרצאה שלך בטד וחשבתי שהיתה מענין מאוד.
כול הודות לך.
(העבריתי טוב? התרגשתי כשאמרת שגרת בישראל)
Dear Professor,
i really enjoyed your talk on TED. Most inspiring.
i was pondering however, why is it that people care/ go through trouble/ tell themselves stories, in order to perceive their behaviour as moral, or justified?
Cause it seems even the biggest “evil-doers” feel a need to justify within actions they know are illegal or immoral.
why do human beings have this need?
(also people telling themselves “ok. i’m evil. sue me”, probably justify their actions in “well, world wasn’t too nice to me and such, so i became a criminal”, or, “i simply don’t care about what i inflict on others”).
In other words,
is the need to feel moral, or appeased with oneself something so fundamental, and organic, structured into human beings?
Thanks,
Best Regards,
mikkel
Your talk was excellent and very inspiring. Thank you very much!
–
Gokhan
Turkey
I just watched your awesome talk on TED.
I wondered if a transcript exists, as my language is Italian, and missed some parts.
But I was impressed. You sound just like Feynman did, a beat of a different drum.
d
Just watched your TED talk. Amazing. Predictably Irrational has been on my to read list for awhile, since I heard it mentioned in the This Week In Tech podcast. After watching your presentation I glanced at your bio an saw that you are the author. I’ll be buying this book soon.
I ran across your TED talk from my regular reading of kurzweilai web site. Great talk. I was so impressed by your talk that I followed up on your web site and just finished reading your book. I would share this personal confession. I was considering buying it on Amazon but checked my local library’s online listing and found it there. Once I saw that I was able to read it for free, I ordered it without hesitation.
I would offer one small objection, or maybe an addition to your analysis on free stuff. Profit is gain minus cost. For most people, “value” is gain divided by cost. When cost is zero, then value is “positive infinity” and is irrestible. This is what confuses people, even more than risk avoidance.
Your TED speech was fantastic! I just finished reading your book today and thought it was brilliant, inspiring, and thought provoking. I’m convincing all of my friends and relatives to go out a purchase a copy. I can’t wait to see what’s next. (By the way, I’ve signed up to be one of your guinea pigs.) Keep up the good work!