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The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves Hardcover – June 5, 2012
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Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational, examines the contradictory forces that drive us to cheat and keep us honest, in this groundbreaking look at the way we behave: The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.
From ticket-fixing in our police departments to test-score scandals in our schools, from our elected leaders’ extra-marital affairs to the Ponzi schemes undermining our economy, cheating and dishonesty are ubiquitous parts of our national news cycle—and inescapable parts of the human condition.
Drawing on original experiments and research, in the vein of Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Survival of the Sickest, Ariely reveals—honestly—what motivates these irrational, but entirely human, behaviors.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateJune 5, 2012
- Dimensions6 x 1.01 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100062183591
- ISBN-13978-0062183590
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Ariely raises the bar for everyone. In the increasingly crowded field of popular cognitive science and behavioral economics, he writes with an unusual combination of verve and sagacity.” — Washington Post
“I thought [Ariely’s] book was an outstanding encapsulation of the good hearted and easygoing moral climate of the age.” — David Brooks, The New York Times
“The best-selling author’s creativity is evident throughout. . . . A lively tour through the impulses that cause many of us to cheat, the book offers especially keen insights into the ways in which we cut corners while still thinking of ourselves as moral people.” — Time.com
“Captivating and astute. . . . In his characteristic spry, cheerful style, Ariely delves deep into the conundrum of human (dis)honesty in the hopes of discovering ways to help us control our behavior and improve our outcomes.” — Publishers Weekly
“Ariely writes in a conversational tone one might associate with a popular teacher, providing readers with a working knowledge of what shapes our ethics—or lack thereof.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Dan Ariely ingeniously and delightfully teases out how people balance truthfulness with cheating to create a reality out of wishful-blindness reality. You’ll develop a deeper understanding of your own personal ethics—and those of everybody you know.” — Mehmet Oz, MD; Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University and host of The Dr. Oz Show
“Anyone who lies should read this book. And those who claim not to tell lies are liars. So they sould read this book too. This is a fascinating, learned, and funny book that will make you a better person.” — A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically and Drop Dead Healthy
“I was shocked at how prevalent mild cheating was and how much more harmful it can be, cumulatively, compared to outright fraud. This is Dan Ariely’s most interesting and most useful book.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
“The Upside of Irrationality is an eye-opening, insightful look at human behavior, proving that defying logic is part of what makes us human.” — Boston Globe
“As in his previous book, the best-selling Predictably Irrational, the experiments Ariely describes generate entertaining and often counterintuitive insights. . . . The result is more than just a handbook for business managers or a collection of snippets to relay at cocktail parties. . . . [D]eciding how to apply his insights is a pleasure that lingers long after the book is finished.” — New York Times Book Review
“A taxonomy of financial folly.” — The New Yorker
“An entertaining look at human foibles.” — New York Times
“Through a remarkable series of experiments, Ariely presents a convincing case. . . . Required reading for politicians and Wall Street executives.” — Booklist
From the Back Cover
The New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality returns with thought-provoking work to challenge our preconceptions about dishonesty and urge us to take an honest look at ourselves.
- Does the chance of getting caught affect how likely we are to cheat?
- How do companies pave the way for dishonesty?
- Does collaboration make us more honest or less so?
- Does religion improve our honesty?
Most of us think of ourselves as honest, but, in fact, we all cheat. From Washington to Wall Street, the classroom to the workplace, unethical behavior is everywhere. None of us is immune, whether it's the white lie to head off trouble or padding our expense reports. In The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, award-winning, bestselling author Dan Ariely turns his unique insight and innovative research to the question of dishonesty.
Generally, we assume that cheating, like most other decisions, is based on a rational cost-benefit analysis. But Ariely argues, and then demonstrates, that it's actually the irrational forces that we don't take into account that often determine whether we behave ethically or not. For every Enron or political bribe, there are countless puffed résumés, hidden commissions, and knockoff purses. In The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, Ariely shows why some things are easier to lie about; how getting caught matters less than we think; and how business practices pave the way for unethical behavior, both intentionally and unintentionally. Ariely explores how unethical behavior works in the personal, professional, and political worlds, and how it affects all of us, even as we think of ourselves as having high moral standards.
But all is not lost. Ariely also identifies what keeps us honest, pointing the way for achieving higher ethics in our everyday lives. With compelling personal and academic findings, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty will change the way we see ourselves, our actions, and others.
About the Author
Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight; a cocreator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies; and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, Irrationally Yours, Payoff, Dollars and Sense, and Amazing Decisions. His TED Talks have been viewed more than 27 million times. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He lives in North Carolina with his family.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper; 56626th edition (June 5, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062183591
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062183590
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.01 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #405,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #734 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #1,043 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions
- #1,053 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Officially, I am the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics at Duke University.
I founded the Center for Advanced Hindsight, wrote a few books, took part in a few media project and startups.
I co-created of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, and I wrote three-time New York Times bestsellers: Predictably Irrational, The Upside of irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. I also wrote a few books that did not make it to the New York Times bestsellers list: Irrationally Yours, Payoff, Amazing Decisions and Dollars and Sense.
My new book, MISBELIEF: WHAT MAKES RATIONAL PEOPLE BELIEVE IRRATIONAL THINGS began with my own experience being the target of conspiracy theories, but quickly became about a phenomenon that affects all of us. I will use the term misbelief to describe the phenomenon we’re exploring. Misbelief is a distorted lens through which people begin to view the world, reason about the world, and then describe the world to others.
I derive a lot of satisfaction from seeing my work take shape in the real life and I take part in a few companies / startups. Among them are: Lemonade, Shapa, Irrational Capital, BEWorks, Epilog, Timeful, and Irrational Labs.
I am also part of a team that is working on an NBC TV series that is loosely based on my life and will premiere on NBC in the fall of 2023. The show is called “The Irrational” and officially it is based on my first book, Predictably Irrational.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book interesting, engaging, and entertaining. They appreciate the great insights and relatable concepts. However, some find the pacing repetitive and too brief.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book interesting, engaging, and enlightening. They appreciate the informative and playful nature of the writing. Readers mention it's good for enthusiastic neuroscience and psychology novices. They say the book provides them with a better knowledge base and easy-to-understand ideas and explanations.
"...reviewers have posted, the "Honest Truth About Dishonesty" is an interesting book in and of itself to gain a better understanding of how behavioral..." Read more
"...regards to dishonesty, and he tells about them in a very easy and relatable way in his book...." Read more
"All types of lies and reasons why one will justify lying. Amazing book that tells the truth about lying. Very interesting! Highly recommend!" Read more
"...Despite the weaknesses of the book, the informative and playful nature of Ariely's writing keeps the reader engaged and interested throughout the..." Read more
Customers find the book provides insight into human behavior. They say the concepts discussed are relatable, and the book is an interesting read testing different hypotheses. Readers also mention the pages are filled with information and data.
"...opinions on these topics, Ariely comes at them from a fresh and non-political perspective...." Read more
"...interesting in their own right, Ariely insists that they also have practical value, as he uses his findings to chart out suggestions with regards to..." Read more
"...in my future career in fraud investigation because it provides insight into human behavior and highlights potential red flags to look for in..." Read more
"...It is an easy, interesting read testing different hypotheses...." Read more
Customers find the book has a perfect amount of humor, science, and real-life. They appreciate the witty stories depicting each study on cheating. Readers also mention the anecdotes and observations are humorous.
"...accompanies addiction, I still found it very interesting, chock-full of humorous anecdotes and Ariely's witty observations...." Read more
"...Each of the chapters contained the perfect amount of humor, science, and real life examples of how cheating and dishonesty are imbedded in our..." Read more
"...Having a witty, comprehendible story to depict each study on cheating and dishonestly made the ideas relatable and real and transferrable to..." Read more
"...It kept me interested, gave me many new insights, and kept me laughing. I never looked at cheating, and why people cheat the way he describes...." Read more
Customers find the book's sound quality great. They mention it's a terrific speaker, has sound research design, and good follow-up hypotheses. Readers also say the author describes his research in an engaging voice.
"...I wasn't disappointed and the research, I felt, was sound and thorough, but the conclusions were repetitive...." Read more
"...He's also a terrific speaker, if you get the chance to see him as I did at a conference earlier this year.)..." Read more
"Brilliant read!Ariely describes his research in an engaging voice - practical stuff that I'm applying in my own work as a professor...." Read more
"Dan Ariely is a great writer. His tone is very conversational and he uses excellent examples to back up his main ideas...." Read more
Customers find the book repetitive and too short on issues of sample size. They say it drags a bit towards the end, losing their attention due to redundancy. Readers also mention the author gets preachy and tiresome at the end.
"...had to consider a weakness, it would be in the area of losing my attention due to redundancy...." Read more
"...It really lags at times when detailing the studies used to come to some of the authors conclusions...." Read more
"...The material is presented in a systematic way, with good coverage (at a layman's level) of a surprising (to me as a layman) variety of topics...." Read more
"...For those of us trained in the scientific discipline, the book is rather too brief on issues of sample size, conditions under which experiments are..." Read more
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Second is the issue of how we are all affected in this kind of make-it-up-as-you-go environment. In his book "A Piece of the Action" Joe Nocera described in 1994 how the money revolution had "created a layer of complication to our already complicated lives, adding responsibilities that didn't exist before, making it necessary for us to learn about things that never used to be among our concerns. We can make mistakes with our money now, and those mistakes can be costly." In the almost 20 years since Nocera wrote that, things have only gotten more complicated -- what with vanishing pensions, gyrating stock markets, more onerous health care options, and housing crises. Hayes wonders now "whether the greatest threat we face is distrust ... in a society bankrupted by norms and order or ... the actual malfeasance and corruption of the pillar institutions themselves."
So with my interest in those two particular issues -- both clearly affected by dishonesty -- Dan Ariely's book promised to add some unique insights. While there is no shortage of opinions on these topics, Ariely comes at them from a fresh and non-political perspective. His chapter intros and set-ups to his various studies allude to these bigger issues, but he structures his experiments to learn psychologically whether and why people cheat in specific and controlled situations. Another reviewer commented that college students might not be the best subjects to use, but by Murray's reckoning this is the formative age where many of our future decision-makers start to establish their work habits, their team interactions, their moralities, and their sense of how far they can go before they get caught. I especially like how Ariely structures his chapters -- and presumably the series of experiments he selects -- around extensions of earlier experiments he's already conducted. So if people do cheat, do they cheat more as they get tired? Do they admit to themselves that they cheat under certain situations? Do they cheat more when they see others cheating around them? Do they cheat more when they're working creatively? By covering each of these and more aspects in separate chapters, you can see how these propensities to cheat might build upon each other, especially in work situations when the pressure is on to perform in opportunistic environments.
So what did I take from Ariely's work on the two topics I was interested in? While the book does not have specific chapters that address either of these two issues in those exact framings, Ariely does describe situations and scenarios that both leaders and each of us find ourselves in which actual dishonesty or the temptation to benefit dishonestly comes into play. On the elite dishonesty topic, one can see how a group of people under pressure to find new ways of making money, to get around specific regulations, or to take advantage of new technologies might be predisposed to cheat. Knowing that other people are billing more liberally and being less than honest almost forces honest people to skirt the rules. Ariely points out that creative people who are driven to make their organizations win are often the most effective liars and cheaters. He explains -- much as Nocera did in describing new financial products 17 years ago -- how new technologies are often used initially to gain unfair advantages over consumers until regulators and consumers figure them out and protect themselves better. All of this indicates how cheating can become rampant without constant vigilance. I would assume Ariely supports a more regulatory environment, given what he knows about what people do when left to their own devices.
Ariely also offers some observations about how and why it is difficult for all of us to protect ourselves when marketers have taken advantage of people's readiness to cut corners. He describes how pharmaceutical reps are trained to offer samples and freebies to doctors until the doctors feel obliged to then lean in their direction. And how our trust in doctors, bankers and financial advisors after working with them for long periods almost makes us bigger marks for recommending actions that may not actually be necessary. As you read these chapters, you get the feeling that we almost expect to be cheated because we might cheat ourselves in similar circumstances.
All in all, the book is a little depressing because it implies that -- since we are all somewhat afflicted by doing things we can get away with -- we may not be so eager to punish others for their dishonesty. No one has been prosecuted for their misdeeds in causing the mortgage debacle, for instance, when previously executives were prosecuted for the Enron and Worldcom frauds. Are we just getting used to these behaviors, even when they almost destroy our economy? Are we so dependent now on the elites that run our institutions that we can overlook these "small discretions" because if they're successful it may lead to improved economies and job creation? Is it becoming more true that the ends justify the means?
Ariely does not offer any specific ideas for curbing dishonesty. For instance, as a professor he is aware that his students use their laptops and cellphones to "multitask" during his classes and that some students may go to essay mills to purchase term papers. He went so far as to try to purchase an essay from one of these "services" to assess the state of that "industry." Upon seeing what he got, Ariely observes, "we were rather relieved, figuring that the day had not yet arrived when students can submit papers from essay mills and get good grades. Moreover, we concluded that if students did try to buy a paper from an essay mill, just like us, they would feel they had wasted their money and wouldn't try again." In other words, it wasn't that it was wrong that they did it ... only that the technology hadn't figured out yet how to provide such services. The onward march of fraud and corruption.
Ariely summarizes that while most people have a propensity to cheat, by and large we all "pass up the vast majority of these opportunities every day without thinking we should take them. This means that we're off to a good start in our effort to improve our moral fiber." My assessment is that if you read the book you'll know better to protect yourself and have some idea of why the people you might have trusted are motivated to cheat.
The main argument: There is certainly no shortage of lying, cheating and corruption in our society today. At their worst, these phenomena do substantial damage to our communities and the people in them. Picking on the corporate world for just a moment, consider a few high-profile examples from the last decade: the scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Haliburton, Kmart, Tyco, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and a host of banks in the financial crisis of 2008.
If you are a particularly pessimistic person, you may think that people are fundamentally self-interested, and will engage in dishonest and corrupt behaviour so long as the potential benefits of this behaviour outweigh the possibility of being caught multiplied by the punishment involved (known as the Simple Model of Rational Crime or SMORC). On the other hand, if you are a particularly optimistic person, you may think that the lying and cheating that we see in our society is largely the result of a few bad apples in the bunch.
Given that the way we attempt to curb cheating and corruption depends largely on which view we think is correct, we would do well if we could come up with a proper understanding of these tendencies, and under what circumstances they are either heightened or diminished. Over the past several years, the behavioral economist Dan Ariely, together with a few colleagues, has attempted to do just this--by way of bringing dishonesty into the science lab. Ariely reveals his findings in his new book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone--Especially Ourselves.
In order to get at the truth, Ariely invited subjects into his lab and gave them tasks with monetary rewards, where cheating was a very real and clear possibility. As you can tell from the title of the book, Ariely found that cheating was not confined to a few bad apples, but was in fact very widespread. On the bright side, though, Ariely also found that the vast majority of his subjects did not cheat nearly as much as they could have, but instead confined themselves to just a little bit of cheating.
Given his findings, Ariely concludes that most of us are torn between two conflicting impulses. On the one hand is the desire to get ahead by way of dishonesty, and on the other hand is the desire to nevertheless think of ourselves as genuinely honest and good people. Getting the best of the both worlds can be tricky, but we manage to do so by way of resorting to our trusty capacities of rationalization and self-deception. Of course, different people show different powers of rationalization and self-deception, and also different circumstances can alter the terms of the negotiation significantly for each of us, thus leading to more or less cheating.
For instance, Ariely found that those who are especially creative are particularly good at rationalization and self-deception, and therefore tend to cheat more so than others (in fact, Ariely found that even priming normal subjects with words related to creativity can increase their cheating behaviour). In addition, he also found that several factors influence the amount that people cheat in general. These factors included being reminded of one's morals; playing for tokens representing money, as opposed to money itself; having one's resolve broken down by will-power depletion; wearing counterfeit clothing and merchandise (as opposed to the genuine article); having one's self-confidence artificially inflated; witnessing other people cheating (either from one's own in-groups, or from out-groups); cheating to benefit others etc.
While these findings are interesting in their own right, Ariely insists that they also have practical value, as he uses his findings to chart out suggestions with regards to how we can minimize cheating and corruption in our own lives, as well as in society at large.
Ariely's clever lab experiments yield many interesting findings with regards to dishonesty, and he tells about them in a very easy and relatable way in his book. My only real criticism is that Ariely does not get into the evolutionary story about the conflicting desires that he identifies, and how and why they may have been laid down in our evolutionary past. Though such a story is not absolutely essential here (as the research does stand on its own), it would add substantially to our understanding of the subject (and is interesting in its own right), and would therefore by very worthwhile. A full summary of the book is available here: An Executive Summary of Dan Ariely's 'The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone--Especially Ourselves'
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