innovative and engaging artwork.
social and economic inequality.
wealth distribution.
what is so taxing about taxation?

Opening Reception: June 22, 2012 from 6 – 10 PM at the CAH

Featuring drinks, classy appetizers, and the fabulous DJ Mike B

With no limitation to the style or media of pieces created for PoorQuality: Inequality, a portion of the artists, which included sculptors, painters, book artists, video artists, and photographers, branched out stylistically from their normal medium, while others pushed conceptual boundaries.

Some chose to explore how to visualize analytical data. Suzanne Broughel used color to interpret the U.S. racial wealth gap by decorating a white bed sheet “canvas” with coin marks made by dipping quarters and pennies in liquid foundation makeup and pressing them on the fabric. Peter Lisignoli, an MFA student at Duke University, became interested in how one represents the absence of food. He photographed a Quick-n-Go market to rethink how space and time are rendered by such a space. Despite his efforts to tackle the social issue of food inequality, his project changed focus toward the ghettoizing gaze of the surveillance camera.

Other artists explored the capacity for art to spark an emotional response to the research presented by the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Leslie Salzillo’s “The Rise of Soraya M (What Does that Make Her?)” honors all women who have suffered small and great injustices created by the unequal legal and social double standards misinterpreted to dehumanize women.

June 1, 2012 – August 31, 2012

Open to the public Monday – Friday 10 AM – 3 PM

When we decided to create the Artistically Irrational series, we hoped to catalyze the scientific process by bringing art directly into the place where we work and think.

Behavioral research is an indispensable tool for social scientists looking to understand and comment on the fascinating world in which we find ourselves. Controlled experiments allow us to measure and reflect on issues ranging from injustice to advertising, the taste of beer to medical conflicts of interest, and even social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Such experiments allow us to reliably test whether our intuitions about the world are true and figure out when, how, and why we are wrong. Art fills a similar void, filtering ideas and motivations through individual sensibilities, then taking the result and crystallizing it into something more or less universal. And although there are many differences between the worlds of Science and Art, both can provide useful social commentary. In fact, it is these very differences that invite a discussion between the two. We hope that, through this project, the scientific and artistic approaches can fertilize one another and expand the lines of communication between two fields that have so much in common but speak to one another so rarely.

The Artistically Irrational exhibition series is essentially an experiment in feedback loops. Each project begins with a discussion of social science research on a particular topic and a request for artists to express themselves through their art. Then, surrounded by the fruits of their labor, we get to further reflect on our research through their eyes, using their insights to enrich the meaning of our studies.

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Creative Dishonesty: Cheat Codes

The first show revolved around our research on cheating and dishonesty. After I spoke to a group of artists, they went back to their studios and put together their interpretations of our findings. They came back with a range of pieces exploring the nature of dishonesty – especially as it related to their own practices. Several artists investigated the moral status of artistic “borrowing” and the thin line between appropriation and flat-out plagiarism. One artist played with the idea of citation, which is virtually nonexistent in art but is a practice with rigid requirements in the sciences (see APA, 2010). Another considered how the mere label of “art” affects how we experience something, whether it is a flattened steel grid or a topsy turvy urinal. Other artists examined the spiral of bad decisions that can spring from one little transgression, and how moral reminders or cleansing rituals can help us correct our misdeeds and start over. Many explored the ways that we lie to others and ourselves, how we hold distorted worldviews and memories – and the rationalizations that go along with them.

All of these pieces revolved around an interesting finding of our research: the tendency of creatives to be less honest than non-creatives. As David Hockney said, “the moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you’re an artist.”

A Sample from the Show:

(click on images for larger view)

Photos taken by Aline Grüneisen

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And because the Creative Dishonesty exhibit was such a success, we decided to host another art show, this time following the theme of social and economic inequality, wealth distribution, and what is so taxing about taxation. This exhibit, PoorQuality: Inequality has just been installed and will accompany me in the Center for Advanced Hindsight until August 31.

If you can make it, I highly recommend coming to our opening reception on June 22 from 6 – 10 PM.

For more photos and information about the Artistically Irrational exhibition series, see our website or contact curator Catherine Howard at artisticallyirrational@gmail.com

The new book is being released today, and so I’m very pleased to introduce it, in person! Well, sort of.  Here I give you a preview of what kinds of topics the book explores (when, where, why, and to whom we lie) and how all these things affect you (they do!).

Thanks, and enjoy!

I’m pleased to announce that I have a new app available at the App Store called Conscience+.

Conscience+ helps you reason through moral dilemmas by providing you with little “shoulder angels” that can help you argue either side of a decision. Simply flip the switch at the top of the app to move between good conscience and bad conscience. Whether you need the extra push to go through with a selfish deed or words of wisdom to resist a bad temptation, Conscience+ has you covered.

1. turning away the dessert menu
2. splurging on a new electronic gadget
3. staying faithful to your romantic partner
4. padding your expense report on your boss’s dime
5. lying on your college application
6. and much, much more!

Get Conscience+ free from the App Store here! Once you’ve played with the app yourself, let us know in the comments if you have any suggested excuses. If we like them, we’ll put them in the next update.

MONDAY, JUNE 4 NEW YORK

Barnes & Noble @82^ND and Broadway @7:00pm

THURSDAY, JUNE 7 CAMBRIDGE, MA 

Brattle Theater @6:00pm

SATURDAY, JUNE 9 WASHINGTON D.C.

Politics & Prose @1:00pm

MONDAY, JUNE 11 SAN FRANCISCO

The Booksmith @7:30pm

TUESDAY, JUNE 12 PALO ALTO

Oshman Family JCC @7:30pm

THURSDAY, JUNE 14 LOS ANGELES

Live Talks Los Angeles @7:45am

For tickets: www.livetalksbusiness.com

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 SEATTLE

Town Hall @6:00pm

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 ST. LOUIS

St. Louis County Library Headquarters @7:00pm

FRIDAY, JUNE 29 DURHAM

Regulator Bookshop @7:00pm

TUESDAY, AUGUST 14 RALEIGH

Quail Ridge Books @7:30pm

As many of you know, I’ve recently been working on a new book.  In fact, many of you helped me pick the title!

Well, I’m excited to announce that The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves will be released in just a couple weeks on June 5th.

With new scandals popping out almost every week, and with substantial conflicts of interests in financial services, medicine, and government – understanding what makes us honest and dishonest is more important than ever.

Since many of you have been following me a long time, I want to offer a special invitation to my fans that pre-order the book

For the first 1000 people that pre-order a copy of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, you’ll receive exclusive access to a special hour long live webinar where I’ll discuss the ideas in my new book, give you a sneak peak at the content and even open it up for some Q&A.

If you’d like to join me, here are the 2 simple steps:

1. Purchase the book at any online retailer and in any format:
 

2. Forward the receipt you receive from your retailer to arielypreorder@gmail.com

I look forward to having you and hearing your feedback on The (Honest) Truth.

I’m excited to announce an innovative new therapy that will be released in tandem with my new book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. I developed it with a team of medical doctors and behavioral economists to treat a broad spectrum of disorders. Cureall (Fixeverything) works to combat the tendency toward self-deception and dishonesty, which, like bacteria in the human body, affect everyone (some more than others).

Cureall is indicated for symptoms ranging from nervous headaches (which often result from faking our credentials to employers) to gastrointestinal disorders (a common side effect of seeing family and friends commit a dishonest act). Talk to your doctor about getting a prescription for Cureall, and watch as your lucidity, honesty, and energy levels go through the roof.

In case you can’t read my handwriting:

Dec 21 2011

Dear Fresh Meadows Library,

In the spirit of the new year, please forgive Allison for being late with my book.

Dan Ariely

To all those who attended the PoorQuality forum last night, thanks for participating!

For more information about the exhibit, please see our Artistically Irrational website

4 years ago today I wrote this post……

Feb 19 / 2008

Birth announcement

I am delighted to announce the birth of Predictably Irrational.

Predictably Irrational was born after a rather long but mostly painless labor, and so far seems healthy and in good spirit. Predictably Irrational is largely orange and blue, but they tell me that this is normal (or at least acceptable).

At birth it is about 300 pages, and 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches.

They tell me that the next few weeks will be a lot of work around the clock, and sleepless nights. But as the proud father, I am looking forward to this next step.

Dan

It has been very interesting four years, and I am very grateful for everything that happened and changed since that day.

Dan