Dan Ariely
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Economics
Overview
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.
My immersive introduction to irrationality took place many years ago while I was overcoming injuries sustained in an explosion. The range of treatments in the burn department, and particularly the daily “bath” made me face a variety of irrational behaviors that were immensely painful and persistent. Upon leaving the hospital, I wanted to understand how to better deliver painful and unavoidable treatments to patients, so I began conducting research in this area.
I became engrossed with the idea that we repeatedly and predictably make the wrong decisions in many aspects of our lives and that research could help change some of these patterns.
A few years later, decision making and behavioral economics dramatically influenced my personal life when I found myself using all of the knowledge I’d accumulated in order to convince Sumi to marry me (a decision that was in my best interest but not necessarily in hers). After managing to convince her, I realized that if understanding decision-making could help me achieve this goal, it could help anyone in their daily life.
Irrationally Yours, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality,The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, the movie Dishonesty and the card game Irrational Game are my attempt to take my research findings and describe them in non academic terms, so that more people will learn about this type of research, discover the excitement of behavioral economics, and possibly use some of the insights to enrich their own lives.
In terms of official positions, I am the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.
My free time is spent working on a guide to the kitchen and life—Dining Without Crumbs: The Art of Eating Over the Kitchen Sink—and of course, studying the irrational ways we all behave.
Zenko, Zachary, et al. “Can You Have Your Vigorous Exercise and Enjoy It Too? Ramping Intensity Down Increases Postexercise, Remembered, and Forecasted Pleasure.” Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, vol. 38, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 149–59. Epmc, doi:10.1123/jsep.2015-0286. Full Text
Lee, Chang-Yuan, et al. “Past Actions as Self-Signals: How Acting in a Self-Interested Way Influences Environmental Decision Making.” Plos One, vol. 11, no. 7, Jan. 2016, p. e0158456. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158456. Full Text
Ayal, Shahar, et al. “Editorial: Dishonest Behavior, from Theory to Practice.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 7, Jan. 2016, p. 1521. Epmc, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01521. Full Text
Barkan, R., et al. “Revisiting constructed preferences: Extrapolating preferences from relevant reminders.” Decision, vol. 3, no. 4, Jan. 2016, pp. 281–94. Scopus, doi:10.1037/dec0000051. Full Text
Barkan, R., et al. “Ethical dissonance, justifications, and moral behavior.” Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 6, Dec. 2015, pp. 157–61. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.001. Full Text
Ariely, Dan, and William L. Lanier. “Disturbing Trends in Physician Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Balance: Dealing With Malady Among the Nation's Healers.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings, vol. 90, no. 12, Dec. 2015, pp. 1593–96. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.10.004. Full Text
Ariely, Dan, and Beatrice Popescu. “Being Irrationally Funny as a Cognitive Psychologist: Interview With Dan Ariely.” Europe’S Journal of Psychology, vol. 11, no. 4, Nov. 2015, pp. 565–70. Epmc, doi:10.5964/ejop.v11i4.1083. Full Text
Mazar, Nina, and Dan Ariely. “Dishonesty in scientific research.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 125, no. 11, Nov. 2015, pp. 3993–96. Epmc, doi:10.1172/jci84722. Full Text
Ayal, Shahar, et al. “Three Principles to REVISE People's Unethical Behavior.” Perspectives on Psychological Science : A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, vol. 10, no. 6, Nov. 2015, pp. 738–41. Epmc, doi:10.1177/1745691615598512. Full Text
Gilam, Gadi, et al. “Neural substrates underlying the tendency to accept anger-infused ultimatum offers during dynamic social interactions.” Neuroimage, vol. 120, Oct. 2015, pp. 400–11. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.003. Full Text