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Murder's Morality
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
There are plenty of things that might upset Johnny “The Basin Street Butcher” Martorano. Perhaps having murdered 20 people in the course of his career as a mob hitman doesn’t sit so well decades later. Well, no, this is not it, Martorano recently recounted his murders as part of Whitey Bulger’s trial with a perfectly flat affect, much to the displeasure of his victims’ families. It seems guilt doesn’t keep him up at night.
Looming Integrity Crisis
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Apparently, Britons are becoming less honest. At least according to a study conducted at the University of Essex, where several thousand respondents filled out an online survey that repeated questions from a study on citizenship and behavior conducted ten years earlier. According to researcher Paul Whiteley, the purpose of the study was to try to gain an idea of the level of dishonesty in British society, and moreover, whats considered acceptable and whether that has altered over time.
Green Consumption: Its Not All Positive
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
There was a time when farmers markets, eco products, recycling, and renewable energy were squarely in the tree huggers domain. Then, somewhere along the line, green went mainstream, turning environmental awareness into a socially desirable trait and a mark of morality.
Disclosure? Not Good Enough.
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Several studies have shown 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 dont entirely know what to make of it were not good at weighing the various factors that influence complex situations and second, the discloser feels morally liberated and free to act even more in his self-interest.
Religion and Research
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
You may recall that we carried out a study on cheating that assessed the value of moral reminders. We asked participants to complete a test, told them theyd receive cash for every correct answer, and made sure they knew they had ample room to cheat. Prior to starting, we had half the participants list ten books off their high-school reading list, and the other half to recall the Ten Commandments, a manipulation that turned out to have a marked effect on the results.
Social Power and Morality
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Dan Ariely quotes the graduation speech of Michael Lewis at Princeton in 2012 that discusses an experiment exploring the relationship between power and morality. There is a great deal of research concerning the link between social power and morality, and most of it suggests that absolute power is not required to change peoples morals; sadly it tends to show that more power leads to less care for others, and less moral behavior.
A Year in the Life of a City Bike.
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
At one point the people who run Hudson Urban Bikes, a bike rental company in the West Village, wondered what would happen to a bike if it was left chained to a post in the city for one year, and they took a picture of it each day to document its progress. The bicycle began its experimental journey equipped with all necessary equipment plus a basket, water bottle, splashguard and a few other goodies.
Women, Men, and Math Problems.
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
In the experiments my colleagues and I have run on cheating, weve used a task in which pride about personal performance and ability has no part. Recent graduate Heidi Nicklaus of Rutgers University was interested in the opposite; she wondered how peoples pride about their perceived and imputed abilities would affect their dishonesty. Specifically, she was interested in gender stereotypes. So the question was, if men are more proud of their mathematic ability and women of verbal, it might cause them to cheat more.
Why We Lie
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a littleright up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity. Not too long ago, one of my students, Peter, locked himself out of his house. After a spell, the locksmith pulled up in his truck and picked the lock in about a minute. The purpose of locks, the locksmith said, is to protect you from the 98% of mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock.
The Facebook IPO: A Note to Mark Zuckerberg; or, With Friends Like Morgan Stanley, Who Needs Enemi
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
I just received this letter from a friend in the banking industry. Dear Mark, Theres been a lot of ballyhoo recently about your IPO and your choice of investment bankers. Indeed, a war was fought by the banks to win your deal of the decade. As reported in the press, the competition was so intense banks slashed their fees in order to win your business. Facebook is only paying a 1% commission for its IPO rather than the 3% typically charged by the banks. Congratulations, Mr. Zuckerberg! On the surface it appears your pals in investment banking have given you a quite a deal!Or have they?
Turning the Tables: FDR, Tom Sawyer, and me
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Before television and the internet, political candidates had two primary means of getting their image out into the public: live appearances and campaign posters. And given the limited reach of the former, posters were a crucial element in political strategy. So when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for governor of New York in 1928, his campaign manager had thousands of posters printed with Roosevelt looking at the viewer with serene confidence. There was just one problem. The campaign manager realized they didnt have the rights to the photo from the small studio where it had been taken.
New Cure All!
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Im 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).
Finance, Meet Pharma
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
I think we need an FDA-like entity and process for financial products, because if we dont have a counterfactual, we cant compare and measure the value of their products. We could call it the FPA, for Financial Product Administration. One example of a financial tool that the FPA could test is high frequency trading. Companies are going all out to profit by being the fastest to buy and sell stocks, owning them for fractions of a second; they even go so far as to buy buildings closer to the stock market to make trading faster.
Celebrating April 15th (17th)
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Our attention is directed toward ending the irritating procedure. So how can we fix this problem? The first step is to simplify and clarify the tax code to make the process less confusing. The process of figuring and filling out tax forms is so exasperating its hard not to direct that feeling toward someone or somethingand generally speaking, that something is the agency that seems responsible for your suffering, which in this case is the IRS. After all, its difficult to maintain a cheerfully civic-minded outlook, or even an even-keeled neutral outlook, in the face of such frustration.
Taxes and Cheating
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Will Rogers once said that The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf and I worry that he was correct. During his confirmation hearing to become the Treasury Secretary, it was revealed that Tim Geithner failed to pay Medicare, Social Security, and payroll taxes for several years while he worked for the IMF. When asked by Senator John Kyl during the hearing about the $40,000 mistake, which Geithner blamed on the tax software he was using it was very clear that this was an avoidable mistakeI had many opportunities to see it. But he didnt, apparently, and that was that.
TSA: Wasteful and Insecure
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
When you consider the approach to security so far, who knows what the next step might bewill we have to wear certain clothes only, carry only certain kinds of luggage, or no luggage at all? Instead we need a comprehensive approach that addresses concerns more fully, rather than the reactionary, piecemeal approach we have at present.
Regret
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Imagine that you have a flight at 8:00 in the morning. Which would be worse, arriving at the gate, breathless, at 8:02, just after theyve closed the door, or at 10:00, thanks to a couple unplanned delays in your morning. Obviously, the first scenario would cause far more misery, but why? Either way youre stuck at the airport until the next flight, eating the same bad, overpriced food, missing whatever you were supposed to do after your planned arrival, whether thats meetings or a stroll on the beach.
Looming Integrity Crisis
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Apparently, Britons are becoming less honest. At least according to a recent study conducted at the University of Essex, where several thousand respondents filled out an online survey that repeated questions from a study on citizenship and behavior conducted in 2000. According to researcher Paul Whiteley, the purpose of the study was to try to gain an idea of the level of dishonesty in British society, and moreover, whats considered acceptable and whether that has altered over time. The problem is that over time, if no one counteracts the spread of dishonesty, it is likely to continue.
Supply, Demand, and Valentines Day
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Want to know how to ensure your wife or girlfriends satisfaction with her Valentines Day present? Over breakfast, casually mention that recent census data shows women outnumber men in your area, and that men are apparently a scarce commodity. Why would this matter? Well, according to a recent study, perceived gender ratio affects economic behavior in both men and women. So for those of you who are single and looking to find a match, heres a little help from the US Census Bureau. Ladies, youll want to try your luck in the blue areas; guys, your best bet is in the red.
Why We Really Are Distracted by Shiny Objects
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
When making simple choices, consumers can spot and choose most of their preferred items in as little as a third of a second. Granted, the visual saliency bias may, in some instances, lead us to make suboptimal choices, but that may be a small price to pay in order to go about our daily lives making rapid, mostly good, decisions. After all, who wants to spend an entire afternoon in front of the store shelf choosing between Snickers and Sour Skittles?
An Alternative to Calorie Labels
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
We just published a new paper: A top cause of preventable death, obesity is a growing threat to an able-bodied, functioning society. Simply put, overeating is one of the biggest contributions to the obesity epidemic, and despite widespread efforts to promote health education, there may be better ways to combat this problem than by giving people nutritional information and relying on them to use that information to make wise choices. We need to stop people, slow them down and offer them to take a better path at the moment when they are placing their order.
Audience with a Dragon Tattoo
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
The Unlimited Movies Cinema in the Netherlands has offered moviegoers the opportunity to see free movies for an entire yearall they have to do is get the theaters logo (a dog-like creature flying under a banner of unfurled film reel) tattooed on their body (for pictures, check this page out). The offer is part of a promotion for the latest movie in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I developed an appreciation for the surprising power of FREE! from the experiments my colleagues and I conducted on how people respond to things when their cost is zero.
Men, Women, and Pain
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
If youve been to the doctors office recently with any kind of complaint, its likely you were ask to rate the pain you were experiencing on a scale from 0 to 10 (being the worst pain possible). Well, a group of researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine recently analyzed the self-reported pain measurements from 11,000 medical records from 2007-2010 and discovered something surprising: women report greater levels of pain than men for the same injuries and ailments.
Refueling Options at Hertz
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
I got this picture this week. What is interesting about this price menu it is that the Fuel and Service priced at $9.29 is so off the scale (and so outrageous) that perhaps it makes the pre-paid option for $3.65 look attractive. After all it is about 1/3 of the price if the Fuel and Service.
This Is How I Feel About Buying Apps
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
I came across a funny cartoon the other day that captures an interesting aspect of our purchasing behavior. We are perfectly willing to spend $4 on coffee (for some of us this is a daily purchase), or $500 on devices that you can argue we dont really need. However, when it comes to buying digital items, such as apps, most of which are priced at $1, we suddenly get really cheap.
Is It Irrational To Give Gifts?
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Rational economists fixate on a situation in which, say, your Aunt Bertha spends $50 on a shirt for you, and you end up wearing it once. Her hard-earned cash has evaporated, and you dont even like the present! Rational economists thus make a simple suggestion: Give cash or give nothing. But behavioral economics, which draws on psychology as well as on economic theory, is much more appreciative of gift giving. Behavioral economics better understands why people (rightly, in my view) dont want to give up the mystery, excitement and joy of gift giving. In this view, gifts arent irrational.
Can Beggars Be Choosers?
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
We realize that if we face the problem, well feel compelled to do something about it, and so we avoid looking and thereby avoid the temptation to give in and help. We know that if we stop for a beggar on the street, we will have a very hard time refusing his plea for help, so we try hard to ignore the hardship in front of us: we want to see, hear, and speak no evil. We can trick ourselves into believing that it doesnt exist. The good news is that, while it is difficult to stop ignoring the sad things if we actively chose to pay attention there is a good chance that we help a person in need.
Flying Frustrations
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Now, its one thing to waste time, but its particularly bothersome when you feel like you are backtracking. In my case of flying to Chicago, the trip took a detour that sent me in away from my final destination. This is the second reason that my flight experience was so irritating it included an element of backtracking in the opposite direction of my goal. We wasted lots of time, and we were diverted in the opposite direction. To overcome the feeling of idleness, I can try finding something to make me feel that the time is spent productively.
A Dinner with Drug Reps
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Janet Schwartz of Tulane University and I recently spent an evening with a few pharmaceutical reps, men who used to be in the business of selling a wide range of drugs to treat all kinds of diseases and conditions, from fibromyalgia to depression to restless leg syndrome. As drug representatives, they would go from doctor to doctor attempting to convince physicians to prescribe their companys drugs. How? They would typically start by passing on informative pamphlets and give out products like pens, clipboards and notepads advertising their drugs.
Asking the right and wrong questions
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
From a behavioral economics point of view, the field of financial advice is quite strange and not very useful. For the most part, professional financial services rely on clients answers to two questions: How much of your current salary will you need in retirement? What is your risk attitude on a seven-point scale?
From my perspective, these are remarkably useless questions but first, lets think about the advisors business model. An advisor will optimize your portfolio based on the answers to these two questions. Not to be offensive, but I think that a simple algorithm can do this.
Better (and more) Social Bonuses
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
A new paper by Mike Norton and his collaborators sheds a very interesting light on the ways that organizations should use money to motivate their employees, boost morale and improve performance. The researchers looks at a few ways that money can be spent and how that affects outcomes such as employee wellbeing, job satisfaction and actual job performance. Specifically, they examine the effect of prosocial incentives, where people spend money on others rather than themselves, and they find that there are many benefits to spending money on others.
Classroom Ethics 101
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
While it may seem like good news that fewer students cheat than they suspect, in fact such an overestimation of the real amount of cheating can become an incredibly damaging social norm. The trouble with this kind of inflated perception is that when students think that all of their peers are cheating, they feel that it is socially acceptable to cheat and feel pressured to order to stay on top. In fact, a few students have come to my office complaining that they were penalized because they decided not to cheat and what was amazing was that they felt that there was injustice done to them.
The Economics of Sterilization
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
When it comes to sterilization, Denmark has had a rather turbulent history. In 1929, in the midst of rising social concerns regarding an increase in sex crimes and general degeneracy, the Danish government passed legislation bordering on eugenics, requiring sterilization in some men and women. Between 1929 and 1967, while the legislation was active, approximately 11,000 people were sterilized roughly half of them against their will.
Teachers cheating and Incentives
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
In recent years there seems to have been a surge in academic dishonesty across many high schools (a lot of it has been showing up in the last few weeks). No doubt this can be explained in part by 1) increased vigilance and reporting, 2) greater pressure on students to succeed, and 3) the communicable nature of dishonest behavior (when people see others do something, whether its tweaking a resume or parking illegally, theyre more likely to do the same). But, I also think that a fourth, and significant, cause in this worrisome trend has to do with the way we measure and reward teachers.
Preferences Leading to Choices?
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Sometimes (perhaps even very often) we don?t make choices based on our internal preferences. Instead we have a gut feeling about what we want, and we go through a process of mental gymnastics and rationalization in order to manipulate our choices so that at the end we can get what we really want but at the same time keep the appearance (to ourselves and to others) that we are acting according to our preferences.
The Irrationality of Organizational Escalation: The Danger of Spider-man & Overcommitment
Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark is an upcoming rock musical. This musical is also the most expensive Broadway production in history, with a record-setting initial project budget of $52 million. The show?s opening has been repeatedly delayed while the production cost continues to accrue, currently totaling a whopping 70 million dollars. The final estimated budget approaches 100 million dollars, with no guarantee of profit return and below-average reviews. Spider-man?s situation exemplifies a classic case of organizational failure.
Depletion and parole
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
It turns out that being tired isn?t just detrimental to exam performance. One theory in decision making that we are beginning to understand better, Depletion Theory, holds that our ability to make any type of difficult decisions are also adversely affected by fatigue. In most of our day to day lives, being tired at the end of a long work day doesn?t lead to too many terrible decisions sometimes, however, the effects are more significant. Consider the dramatic results of a recent study investigating a large set of parole rulings of judges in Israeli courts. Their conclusion is striking.
Wait For Another Cookie?
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
The scientific community is increasingly coming to realize how central self-control is to many important life outcomes. We have always known about the impact of socioeconomic status and IQ, but these are factors that are highly resistant to interventions. In contrast, self-control may be something that we can tap into to make sweeping improvements life outcomes. If you think about the environment we live in, you will notice how it is essentially designed to challenge every grain of our self-control.
Physician-Assisted Suicide and Behavioral Economics
As the American population ages, the debate about the ethics of physician-assisted suicide for terminal patients becomes more important. Proponents of legalizing of physician-assisted suicide argue the practice is ethically justifiable because it can alleviate prolonged physical and emotional suffering associated with debilitating terminal illness. Opponents claim that legally sanctioned lethal prescriptions might destroy any remaining desire to continue living ? a sign of society having ?given up? on the patient.
The Upside of Useless Stuff
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
There?s been plenty of talk lately ?in these pages and elsewhere? about a new kind of capitalism. About creating things because they?re good for society. About understanding, as Michael Porter and Mark Kramer suggest (?Creating Shared Value,? HBR January-February 2011), that not all profits are created equal: Profits derived from making the world better are superior to those derived from the consumption of useless, or even harmful, junk. At the risk of touching the third rail, I propose that getting people to want things they don?t really need may be far more valuable to society than we think
Can the tax code cause us to spend too much?
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
April 15th ? Tax day is upon us, so it?s a perfect time to contemplate a few aspects of taxes. In the past I?ve written about how I used to think that tax day was a wonderful day of civic engagement. Of course, over the years, as my taxes have become more complex, this task becomes one that is less about civic engagement and thoughtfulness, and more about annoyance and frustration. But that?s for another time. The US tax system makes it very difficult for us to understand how much money we make and how this may actually lead us to spend more money than we really have.
The Rationality of One-Star Reviews
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
The publisher for Michael Connelly?s latest thriller it decided to charge $14.99 for the Kindle version and $14.28 for the hardback version. While standard economics tells us that consumers will be willing to pay more for items they derive more utility (pleasure and usefulness) from, in practice, factors such as fairness and manufacturing costs play a role into our decisions of what to buy and how much to pay. It is not easy to focus on what we really care about (the quality of the time we spend) rather than the price. On top of that the unfairness of the differences in price can make us mad.
Squash and Our Intuitive Strategic Thinking
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
I am a fairly avid squash player. One of my favorite aspects of squash is the strategic thinking required. The other day while playing, I had a slight itch to change strategies. It wasn?t a conscious process, and it was more like a kind of the desire to pick a scab. Like picking a scab, my better judgment told me that making this switch would be a bad idea, but the urge was too great, and I switched my playing style. And it worked! After the game I wondered, where does this itch come from? Is it part of our creative instinct for exploring and trying out new strategies?
Benefits of deadlines
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
The organization that funded science in the UK decided that instead of asking people to submit grants by 2 specific dates each year (which is that the US funding agencies do), and get people all stressed over the deadlines ? they will let people submit grant at any time that they want and they will review the grants that have arrived using the same 2 times a year. What happened? Fewer grants were submitted and eventually the Brits changed back to the twice a year setup. All this is to show us, how useful deadlines can be.
Backing Down From Agreements?Results
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
You are shopping for a car, find a seller, and agree to purchase his car in a couple of days. The day before the sale, you find a better deal. Under what conditions would you renege on your original agreement? Would it be easier if your original agreement was made over the phone? Or over coffee? Last week we put out a survey to find out, and here are the results:People have the hardest time reneging on deals made in person (compared with phone and email), and we have much less of a problem reneging deals made via a car dealer relative to one that was mediated by a mutual friend.
Admitting to Another Irrationality
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
One of the main difficulties I face on a daily basis is an inability to say ?no.? I have always had this problem, but it used to be that nobody really asked much from me, so this weakness didn?t pose a real problem. But now that behavioral economics has become more popular, I receive invitations to speak almost every day. Accordingly, my inability to say ?no? has turned into a real challenge. So why do I, and many others, suffer from this problem? I think it is because of three different reasons: 1) Avoidance of regret 2) The curse of familiarity and 3) The future is always greener.
In Praise of the Handshake
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
Imagine we meet at a party, and I tell you about my research on behavioral economics. You see opportunities to use the principles to improve your business and think we could work together. You have two options: You can ask me to collaborate, with a handshake promise that if things work out, you?ll make it worth my while. Or you can prepare a contract that details my obligations and compensation, specifies who will own the resulting intellectual property, and so on. For most of you, the decision is obvious. The second approach, the complete contract, is the way to go. But should it be?
A Lesson About (De)motivating Employees
by Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational,
The CEO of a software company cancels a project that was developed by a group of highly motivated employees, who believed their work would have been the best new idea in the computer world. The group was demoralized and the key people ultimately quit. How could the CEO have better handled the situation?
Results 1–50
of 106 found.