Artists from around the world are invited to attend a discussion about behavioral economics, dishonesty and cheating at the Center for Advanced Hindsight on October 25 at 7:30 PM EST.  (Artists who do not live within driving distance of Durham, NC can watch the forum streaming live online.)

Interested artists should RSVP to Catherine Howard (irrationalcreativity@gmail.com) by October 24 by 9 PM for driving directions and/or the online streaming link.

After the forum, applications will be circulated to artists interested in creating artwork to depict their reflection on cheating and dishonesty.  Applications will include a brief explanation of the artist’s creative process and 2-3 digital images of past work.

Please submit applications to Catherine Howard at irrationalcreativity@gmail.com by October 28.

Artists will be notified if they are selected to participate by October 29 and will receive a $100 stipend to complete their piece.  There is no limitation to the style or media of pieces created for “Cheat Codes,” but all work must be completed by November 26. 

Artwork created for “Cheat Codes” will be on display the Center for Advanced Hindsight from December 3, 2011 to January 31, 2012.  An exhibit catalogue / book, including responses and reflections by the artists and the researchers at The Center For Advanced Hindsight, will be published. Each artist will receive a copy.

Artists will retain all rights to their piece. Works will be returned to artists after the exhibit by February 15, 2012.  If the piece is purchased, the $100 stipend will be deducted from the purchase price.

Important Deadlines

Oct 25, 7:30 PM: Dishonesty forum at the Center for Advanced Hindsight
Oct 28, 9 PM: Deadline to apply for participation in “Dishonesty”
Oct 29, 9 PM: Selected artists will be notified
Nov 26, 9 PM: Drop-off deadline
Dec 16, 6 – 10 PM: Opening reception at the Center for Advanced Hindsight

For more information about the Creative Dishonesty project, contact curator Catherine Howard at irrationalcreativity@gmail.com.

Calling All Artists for “Cheat Codes”

Artists from around the world are invited to attend a discussion about behavioral economics, dishonesty and cheating at the Center for Advanced Hindsight on October 25 at 7:30 PM EST.  (Artists who do not live within driving distance of Durham, NC can watch the forum streaming live online.)

Interested artists should RSVP to Catherine Howard (irrationalcreativity@gmail.com) by October 24 by 9 PM for driving directions and/or the online streaming link.

After the forum, applications will be circulated to artists interested in creating artwork to depict their reflection on cheating and dishonesty.  Applications will include a brief explanation of the artist’s creative process and 2-3 digital images of past work.

Please submit applications to Catherine Howard at irrationalcreativity@gmail.com by October 28.

Artists will be notified if they are selected to participate by October 29 and will receive a $100 stipend to complete their piece.  There is no limitation to the style or media of pieces created for “Cheat Codes,” but all work must be completed by November 26. 

Artwork created for “Cheat Codes” will be on display the Center for Advanced Hindsight from December 3, 2011 to January 31, 2012.  An exhibit catalogue / book, including responses and reflections by the artists and the researchers at The Center For Advanced Hindsight, will be published. Each artist will receive a copy.

Artists will retain all rights to their piece. Works will be returned to artists after the exhibit by February 15, 2012.  If the piece is purchased, the $100 stipend will be deducted from the purchase price.

Important Deadlines

Oct 25, 7:30 PM: Dishonesty forum at the Center for Advanced Hindsight
Oct 28, 9 PM: Deadline to apply for participation in “Dishonesty”
Oct 29, 9 PM: Selected artists will be notified
Nov 26, 9 PM: Drop-off deadline
Dec 16, 6 – 10 PM: Opening reception at the Center for Advanced Hindsight

For more information about the Creative Dishonesty project, contact curator Catherine Howard at irrationalcreativity@gmail.com.

I just posted a fun new study (should take about 5 min). If you are willing to take it, please look on the right under “Participate” and press on the “Right Now. Take a quick anonymous survey” link. 

By Amit and Dan Ariely

For the past few weeks, my 8-year old son Amit and I have been observing birds, paying attention to their individual and particular behavior.  We noticed that some of the birds we observed were different in their physical characteristics like color, shape and size, and that these traits varied with their behavior. This made us wonder about the possible evolutionary links between the appearance of the birds on one hand and their respective behavior on the other.

The first difference that stood out to us was between the small and large red birds. Although the larger ones were about twice as big, their ability to fly was about the same — but what was very different about the two kinds was that the larger red birds were much more aggressive and caused more damage when they attacked. Of course, the evolutionary reason for this difference in aggression seems straightforward; as the subtype of birds gets larger, they need more food, and with this increased requirement, aggression becomes an important survival skill.

The yellow subtype of birds were slightly more of a challenge to figure out. Other than being yellow, their general characteristics were similar to the red birds — but Amit and I couldn’t help but notice their tendency to suddenly fly at much higher speeds relative to the red birds. We speculated that the evolutionary reason for this difference must be that the red birds, by virtue of their threatening color, are less appealing to predators, and as a consequence they never needed to develop enhanced speed to escape. In contrast, the yellow birds practically invite predators to dine with their appealing color. With this clear disadvantage the yellow birds are forced to rely on an alternative survival mechanism, in this case the valuable skill of speed.

Another interesting feature of the yellow bird is that it is sharper, perhaps because it is a species connected with the woodpecker family.  The yellow birds’ sharpness might also help it further when it needs to break down a structure or cut through wood – which again is most likely connected to their need to compensate for their color disadvantage.

The blue birds were fascinating in their ability to self-replicate, and in all of the cases we observed they produced exactly three offspring. We wondered why the blue birds evolved to produce offspring at such speed and timely consistency, and we determined that the evolutionary reason for this must be that because the blue birds are small and relatively slow, they had to develop a skill for efficient reproduction, thereby hedging their bets and increasing the potential to pass on their genes.

The white birds were even more puzzling. On multiple occasions, we watched them drop their eggs while still in flight, naturally crushing the egg. Initially this seemed to be a counter-evolutionary strategy, but once we inspected the discarded eggs we realized that these eggs were abnormal, and it was probably the white bird’s strategy for dealing with eggs that have a low potential for survival. One additional observation in support of this hypothesis is that the white birds seemed to be much healthier, lighter and happier after the eggs were discarded.

Of course there were many other birds as well, including one particularly interesting black bird, and Amit and I are thinking of continuing to pursue this bird-project for a while. In fact, we are already getting somewhat addicted to it, and we just learned that there are plenty more birds to observe in Rio.

But what really baffles us is this: why are these birds SO angry?

Amit and Dan

August 26-28th, 2011

Introducing Startup-Onomics

Startup-Onomics is about infusing behavioral economics into the core DNA of new companies.

Through interactive lectures in the morning and 1:1 working sessions with famous industry experts in the afternoon, you’ll walk away with the scientific tools to better understand your customers and build products that meet their needs.

These techniques are proven to increase site conversion rates, create effective pricing strategy, improve customer and employee retention and overall help users change the ‘hard-to-change’ behavior.

What is behavioral economics?

As business owners, we want to design products that are useful, we want customers (lots of them), and we want to create a motivating work environment. But it’s not that easy. In fact, most of the time that stuff takes a lot of hard work and a lot of trial and error.

Good news. There is a science called Behavioral Economics.  This attempts to understand people’s day to day decisions (where do I get my morning coffee?) and people’s big decisions (How much should I save for retirement?).

Understanding HOW your users make decisions and WHY they make them is powerful. With this knowledge, companies can build more effective products, governments can create impactful policies and new ideas can gain faster traction.

For more details see:

http://startup-onomics.com/

The Upside of Irrationality has been released today in paperback! To celebrate this occasion, I will be releasing videos over the next few months — each discussing one of the chapters.

Here is a look into the introduction:

p.s I just learned that the world is going to end on May 21, so if you want to get the book, do it quickly (and pay with a credit card).

irrationally yours

Dan

At the suggestion of my friend, Sarah Szalavitz, I went to http://www.themonastery.org/ and within a few minutes become an ordained minister.

It wasn’t a deep spiritual experience, but the website tells me that in a few weeks I will get a certificate that will allow me to officiate weddings, baptisms, funerals, and blessings. Apparently I will also be able to start my own religion and perhaps most exciting — to absolve people of their sins.

From all of these possible directions and options, I think I would like to start small – baby steps – and maybe try my hand at a wedding or two. My only question is what an irrational wedding ceremony would be like.  Should I give a speech about all the irrational aspects of getting married?  Should I point to the challenges of living together for prolonged periods of time?  What about the irrationalities of having kids?  Or should I take a more optimistic approach and while pointing to the challenges also suggests ways to overcome some of them?

As you can see, I am open to suggestions.

Irrationally yours

Dan

How well do you know your friends? We have created a really fun game on Facebook that lets you measure just that. It’s called Friend Measure.

Here’s how Friend Measure works: every week Friend Measure asks you and your friends a question. For example:

Q: If the teller at your bank gave you an extra $1,000 and you could take it and never get caught, would you?

A: Yes

B: No

Here’s the twist: not only do you answer for yourself, but Friend Measure also asks you predict what your friends would answer as well. Once you’ve made your predictions, Friend Measure calculates your “Friend Score,” which lets you know how well you really know your friends. If you think about it, this “friend score” can tell us a lot about the kinds of questions we’re asking. So far we’ve found some really surprising results.

For example: we asked “Can you tell the difference between wine that costs about $10 a bottle and one that costs about $40 a bottle?” 75% of respondents admitted, no, they can’t tell the difference. Even more surprising though, is that they thought that about 58% of their friends could tell the difference. Respondents’ overall accuracy for predicting their friends was 53%, which is basically no better than chance.

Here’s one in which users were really good at predicting their friends’ responses: we asked, “Do you think that increasing the tax rate for the wealthy by 10% will get rich people to work less?” Respondents were 84% accurate in guess their friends’ responses, because we typically know our friends’ political affiliations really well.

From time to time, I’ll be sharing interesting findings like these here, but only if you participate! Enjoy!

Dear Friends,

Please pass this announcement on to undergraduate and graduate students who may be interested in applying to the Center for Advanced Hindsight’s first annual summer internship in behavioral science research. More information can be found below and here.

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The Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University is accepting applications from students interested in conducting experiments in behavioral economics in our summer research internship. The 5-week program begins on July 7, 2011 and ends on August 11, 2011. For more about the CAH team at the Center for Behavioral Economics, see http://becon.duke.edu.

From studies on the consumption vocabulary of vegetables to the effect of eye gaze on trust, there is never a dull moment in the Center for Advanced Hindsight. The CAH summer internship will be valuable for students who are interested in gaining experience with experiments in behavioral economics. Our lab includes researchers with training in social and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, design, and general judgment and decision-making. Interns will spend approximately 20 hours each week working in collaboration with CAH research assistants, faculty and graduate students and will be involved with planning and conducting experiments in the lab and field, as well as some data entry and analysis. At the end of the five weeks, interns will propose a project of their own (a 2-page report) stemming from the research they carry out over the summer.

Interns will be provided with a stipend to cover living expenses, with details to be determined.

To apply, please submit the following as a single pdf  by April 20, 2011:

1. A resume or curriculum vitae. Please include your university, major, relevant courses, research experience, GPA, and email address.

2. A one-page cover letter describing your research interests, as well as your specific areas of strength and weakness. What experience do you have with the behavioral sciences? Why would you like to attend the program, and what do you hope to gain from your internship experience?

3. A letter of reference from a member of your academic community (a graduate student, post-doctoral researcher, or professor).

Materials (and any questions you may have about the internship) should not be sent to me, but should be submitted to advancedhindsight@gmail.com

FAQs and further information can be found here.

Applicants will be notified of their status by May 20, 2011

I just posted a rather longish new study (should take about 15 min).

So — if you have the extra time and you are willing to tell us about the way you view different moral decisions Please look on on the right under “Participate” and press on the “Right Now. Take a quick anonymous survey” link

I will post the results in a few weeks

Thanks in advance

Dan