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Heerlijk Oneerlijk: Hoe We Allemaal Liegen, Met Name Tegen Onszelf (2012)

by Dan Ariely(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Maven Publishing

review 1: On display in the new nonfiction, and I recognized the author's name. I've got four of his titles on my List, but I haven't actually read anything by him yet. We'll see.***Ariely covers his research into cheating and lying, as well as the research of others in the field. As I noted in my update, House is right: everybody lies. The good news is that most people lie and cheat at a low level, just a little, not so much to destroy our vision of ourselves as good people. We're more likely to cheat when we know we can get away with it, and when people like us are cheating too. We're less likely to cheat when it would be taking advantage of a specific blind person, or when it would mean overt and obvious action.For people interested in improving the way their business or organiza... moretion works (education and banking are mentioned, the Wall Street collapse is considered) there is some good advice about ways to decrease the incentives and remind people that we want to be good. Interesting stuff. I'm fascinated by the idea that we're none of us as good as we'd like to believe, but most of us aren't really that bad, either. Philosophically, I'm particularly drawn to the idea that secular resets can serve the same purpose as religious confession, allowing us to start over with a clean conscience. I wish there had been a larger section devoted to this idea. Ah, well, maybe the next book.Library copy
review 2: This book completes the trilogy of Ariely's book on which his course on Coursera is based. The course is very well done and illustrated, and full of material for further readings. This book covers a topic very dear to the author, and one that is sure to strike a chord of lots of people, particularly those who are not ashamed to admit that, yes indeed, we tend to cheat when possible or allowed. This is in fact no novelty, though shamefull it may sound, and yet the classic economic theory on cheating is based on mere economic calculus and does not quite get the point. The SMORC assume that the decision to cheat is only due to a cost/benefit analysis on what is to be gained, the probability to be caught and the penalty for that. Yet Ariely has data to prove that this is not correct, and introduces what he calls the "fudge factor" for that -- that is, one normally cheat enough to get a gain from the shameful act, but not as much as bein unable to keep a good sight at himself as a correct person. This fudge factor can be stretched and reduced. Reminding of good moral conducts, i.e. by reminding of some honor codes, help decreasing the factor, while social acceptance of the crime or imitation of shameful conducts can increase it. More, Ariely has conducted experiments on several additional factor that have influence on our tendency to cheat, such as depletion, social aspects, collaboration and supervision, reset and cleansing, dress codes and fakes, feeling of revenge, creativity and rationalization. It is not clear how large and statistically significant the data Ariely and coauthors have gathered are to support his conclusions -- this criticism in fact holds for his divulgative books in general, as he does not give substantial details to estimate that, one has to accept it or go for the academic papers, which are fully referenced in appendix. His reasoning is however plain and normally simple and intuitive, and he always gives the impression that he is aware he is a common person no better than any other and so sharing biases with anyone. He frequently indulges in personal anecdotes, and even drew inspiration from them to stir his academic research. By the same token, his observations and conclusions involve a sort of wisdom that he is simply sharing with anyone listening in hope to help improving life quality and even solve serious issues like corruption in big corporations, financial scams and cheating and so on. Ariely's tone is that of someone aware that we are all to a certain extent affected by these behavioral patterns, and while not condescending he is certainly comprehensive in the way he delivers suggestions, like a good father having fun with his own research and thinking he can actually be helpful. The writing style is clean, often witty, filled with description of daily situations (though evidently mainly arranged for an American audience) and personal experiences. Interestingly, he does not claim that cultural differences affect cheating behavior, and suggests some tentative methods to put a limit to the cheating contagion, like reset strategies, supervisions, reminders. Notably, he never cites Kahneman. less

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