The thing about habits is that for good and bad they require no thinking. Sometimes, something we do 'just once' can wind up becoming a habit and a part of our activities for a longer time than we envisioned. While habits can save us time, energy and unpleasant thought, they can also easily start us down an unwholesome path. Seven of our most common irrational habits include an overemphasis on first decisions, procrastination, the planning fallacy, texting while driving, checking email too much, relativity in salary and over-optimism.

Pfizer disclosed that it paid $20 million in consulting and speaking fees to 4,500 doctors in the second half of 2009. The company also shelled out $15.3 million to U.S. academic medical centers for their clinical trials. This marks the first time a company has disclosed its payments for clinical trials. As such, some may see this as a good deed on Pfizer's part, a noble step towards eliminating or reducing some of the conflicts of interest in medicine. Several studies have shown, however, that when professionals disclose their conflicts of interest, this only makes the problem worse.

Businesses most often rely on small 'focus groups' to answer big questions in marketing. In doing so, they rely on the intuition of about 10-12 lay people with no relevant training, and who ultimately have no idea what they're talking about. Although statistics about how a large group of people actually behaves can tell us so much more than the intuitions of a focus group, the allure of a story is irresistible. Perhaps we should try and supplement the numbers with a story to quench our thirst for an anecdote. What we can't do is forget about the facts in favor of fairy tales.

In this video, Dan Ariely discusses irrationalities surrounding sunk costs. Because he made an initial investment in a razor handle several years ago, he's willing to endure an inferior shaving experience, even though much better, newer models are now available. He also holds onto his razor blades much longer than he should. His habits regarding squash balls follow a similar pattern. His birthday resolution: Throw away the old razor, and the old squash balls.

Power and moral hypocrisy are no strangers ? we see it all the time. Social scientists recently ran a simulation where each participant was assigned a high-power role (prime-minister) or a low-power role (civil servant). Next, the researchers presented all participants with a seemingly unrelated moral dilemma and asked participants to rate the acceptability of the act. Researchers found that compared to participants without power, powerful participants were stricter in judging other' moral transgressions but more lenient in judging their own.

This post features a video by Jeff Monday of the mondaydots blog. In his new book Drive, author Dan Pink distinguishes between extrinsic motivators such as strict schedules and large bonuses, and intrinsic motivators like autonomy, mastery and purpose. Employees performing jobs that require more than just basic cognition, he argues, are less productive when motivated by an extrinsic source than by an intrinsic source. The call for intrinsic motivators is thus really a call to move the employee-employer interaction from a market relationship to a social relationship.

Companies pay amazing amounts of money to get answers from consultants with overdeveloped confidence in their own intuition. And yet, companies won't experiment to find evidence of the right way forward. Ariely thinks this irrational behavior stems from two sources. One is the nature of experiments themselves. As the people at the consumer goods firm pointed out, experiments require short-term losses for long-term gains. Second, there's the false sense of security that heeding experts provides. When we pay consultants, we get an answer from them and not a list of experiments to conduct.

Past studies have shown that when we reason about other people, we form an opinion of their views based on two sources: egocentric info - what we ourselves believe - and outside clues - what the other person has said and done, and what others have said about them. In one recent study, researchers found that there was a significant correlation between participants' views on moral issues and their estimates of God's views on the same topics. These results may suggest that God may be a blank slate onto which we project anything we choose.

In compliance with a federal integrity agreement, pharmaceutical maker Pfizer released details of its financial involvement with the medical community. Several studies have shown, however, that when professionals disclose their conflicts of interest, this only makes the problem worse. This is because two things happen after disclosure: first, those hearing the disclosure don't entirely know what to make of it, and second, the discloser feels even more liberated to act in his own interest and to disregard the public good.

This post features a video by Jeff Monday of the blog mondaydots. Just as our eyes can be tricked by optical illusions, Monday says, our minds can be tricked by cognitive illusions. We tend to measure our alternatives based on relative information. This tendency toward relativity often causes us to lose out on absolute gains by leading us into the trap of immediate gratification. In order to avoid these sorts of traps, we must establish external cognitive rulers to help measure absolute gains and losses.

The heat of the moment is a powerful, dangerous thing. As research going back to Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory shows, the problem with emotional decisions is that our actions loom larger than the conditions under which the decisions were made. When we confront a situation, our mind looks for a precedent among past actions without regard to whether a decision was made in emotional or unemotional circumstances. This means we end up repeating our mistakes, even after we've cooled off.

New research shows that capuchin monkeys, when given a choice, will opt for a buffet of food options rather than their favorite food. They will even select less-preferred food from the buffet. The research shows the power of offering multiple choices to motivate behavior, and relates to Ariely's previous research that people will eat 43% more M&Ms when there are 10 colors in the bowl instead of seven.

Psychology teaches us three main lessons. First, that the environment has a large, as yet unrecognized effect on our behavior; second, that out intuitions about what drives our behaviors are flawed; and third, that our emotions play a large role in our decision-making. These lessons have important implications for economics, and show us the importance of experiments and empiricism in economic research.

At a 2009 conference held by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, event planners decided to set the vegetarian lunch as the default meal option. Eighty percent of guests opted for the vegetarian option, compared to just 20 percent in 2007.

Exhaustion or stress can cause people to focus only on the short term and avoid the long term, and this can make them more susceptible to mistakes. Squash is a game of strategy. Players must plan several shots ahead in order to score. When squash players are out of shape, however, they tend to focus only on making the next shot.

Dan Ariely needed a new placebo after studies showed that Airborne Effervescent Health Formula did nothing to keep him from catching an illness. A placebo will only work if you think that it is doing something. Luckily, his mother sent him a new medicine in the mail.

In this video, Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational recalls a meeting he had with economist Paul Samuelson, who died on December 13, 2009. Samuelson signed four copies of his textbook for Ariely to sell under different conditions for an economic experiment.

Dan Ariely says the New York Times may be able to succeed with its new online pay wall if it offers subscribers a new experience that was not available before. Online Times readers will be guided by ?anchoring,? which suggests that they will not be willing to pay more for the same things, but may be willing to pay more for different things.

We are victims of temptation - that's why our resolutions to start dieting or saving or to stop procrastinating often fail. One source of temptation that detracts from productive work is random web surfing. Ariely discusses a new web application that controls the desire to browse "non-productive" sites.

Ariely asks his readers how they would spend $20,000 if their goal was ?to get the most joy and happiness.? You can view the responses.

?A few days ago we looked at some telling search suggestions by Google when it came to what boyfriends and girlfriends searched for in their relationships. On the heels of this insight, I wanted to se

What do Williams Gehris, America?s most decorated war hero, and Walter Williams, our last Civil War veteran to pass away, have in common? Both were frauds: they spun tales of military heroism, duped

You know how Google sometimes ?predicts? what you might be searching for by giving you a little drop down menu of suggested search queries? These suggestions, of course, are based on what other users