Here’s What Dishonesty is Really About | Big Think
Here’s What Dishonesty is Really About
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Behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely has spent over 10 years researching human dishonesty. What are the different kinds of dishonesty? Why do we tell lies? How can one act of dishonesty escalate further? In this video, Ariely discusses white lies (lies you tell for other peoples’ benefit), “the subway was late” lies that benefit ourselves, and, further, the lies we juggle when our personal and business lives intersect. If you’re interested in how dishonesty forms in the brain or how one dishonest act can lead to others, check out this video.
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DAN ARIELY:
Dan Ariely is the James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and co-founder of BEworks, which helps business leaders apply scientific thinking to their marketing and operational challenges. His books include Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times best-sellers. as well as The Honest Truth about Dishonesty and his latest, Irrationally Yours.
Ariely publishes widely in the leading scholarly journals in economics, psychology, and business. His work has been featured in a variety of media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Business 2.0, Scientific American, Science and CNN.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Dan Ariely: One of the main streams of my research for the last more than 10 years has been focusing on dishonesty. And dishonesty is really interesting because it’s not just about dishonesty. It’s actually a phenomenon that captures almost all of the human principles of behavior. It’s about selfishness versus generosity. It’s about us versus other people. It’s about rationalization. It really captures a lot of things. And because of this, there are lots of forces that drive dishonesty. But here is one way to start thinking about it. When we grew up, we grew up in a social environment and our parents tried to teach us what is acceptable and not acceptable. And in that environment white lies are certainly acceptable, encouraged. And our parents teach us, you know, as somebody who has a visible disability, you know, I see kids from time to time point at me and say, “Mommy, why is this man has scars.” And the parents often say, “It’s not nice to point. Don’t say that.” Basically, right. So there is a lot of things that we teach kids about how to be polite. And being polite often means not saying the exact truth. We teach them that. So this is white lies, right.
And white lies are not about our benefit. It’s about the benefit of others, right. Then, of course, there are the lies that have our benefit as well. Here in New York, I think the subways is probably blamed for lots of things that they are not responsible for. Probably everybody who was ever late in New York blames the subway for some reason, right. They don’t say, “Oh, you know, I know we had a meeting. I was just – I couldn’t care really about getting here on time. I don’t care so much about you waiting for me so I left like…” You don’t say that, right. You say, “I left on time it’s just the subway, you wouldn’t believe what happened.” Those are not lies for other people. It’s true that they don’t offend other people, but they help you as well. And then there are lies that are more and more selfish over time. But the interesting thing is that we learn to lie in the social realm and then when we move to the business world, all of a sudden we’re not supposed to lie. But can we make this transition? It turns out its very hard to make this transition and it’s very hard to make this transition especially when your social circle and business circles are overlapping. I think a lot about students at the university. Their social cycle which is — circle — which is their friends on campus and the people they work with, the people that they collaborate and do papers with and so on are the same people. The overlap is almost perfect.
Can we expect them to say oh, this is a social realm. It’s okay to be polite. This is a professional realm; let me not. So as those circles overlap it becomes harder and hard to keep honestly and not to be dishonest. The other thing though is that we’ve done lots of things in the lab about dishonesty. We got people to steal money from us and we see when they steal more and when they steal less. But in the last few years,….
To read the transcript, please go to https://bigthink.com/videos/human-dishonesty
@Satorm1
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Honestly you're ugly :p But you really seem to have a smart and beautiful brain
@BrennanCallan
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Never begin sentences with "and," "but," or "with" as those are incomplete thoughts and incomplete sentences.
Throughout the video, there are many other grammatical mistakes dealing with singular and plural issues.
For credibility, you should update the written portions and the video as poor grammar conveys a lack of detail to communicating and that impedes all credibility with the audience.
B
@VictoriaPho3nix
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
in all due fairness, human behaviour should be based on general principles, i.e., what is right and what is wrong, not on what you think is honest or dishonest.
@turbomuon
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
The best thing about this video is that it is 4:20 in length
@videogiocatore3
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Nice, this made me think about my ex
"It's not the time to be together, im to busy, i can't give you 100%"
Aka: Fucking his friend.
@CharlotteTranp
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
his ideas and studies findings always leave me with some fascinating after thoughts. Can't wait to get my hands on his new book!
@SwobyJ
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
"Why does he have those scars?" If I parent, I hope I can have the energy and care to instead answer "Lets talk about this in the car later." and then "Maybe he had an accident and survived it. Maybe he was born with it? What do you think? Do you think this makes him less, more, neither?" (using words that fit the child's age)
@VasileSurdu
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
so the main problem is 'the self'.. the 'me'.
this is the creator of all the misery in our lives
@smartiac
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Clickbate title, decent video. I enjoyed your accent. You have my upvote
@Ndo01
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
The idea at the end must be the basis for why ancient Greeks appreciated and empathized with tragic stories and plays so much.
@michaelrosche
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Great guy! Love all of his books, highly recommend them.
@sandreid87
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
It might be a slippery slope, but that's still no excuse.
@gfxlab
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Human's are unstable as fuck. If you don't validate their dishonesty, then they can easily turn on you. On the other spectrum, having a sharp tongue for the sake of an ego complex is just as bad, in terms of lying. Personally, I only care about results. They can lie to themselves all they want. Up until they start going apeshit religious.
@Raphaelus13
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
I LOVE all of Arieli's research fields. They all surround irrationality on some way, which I find fascinating.
@bulalaish
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
superawesome
@qhack
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
I am reminded of the movie Liar, liar with Jim Carrey.
@saidthescorpion
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Looks like Rocky Balboa
@charmlu3202
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
So it fits the mutual benifits, so lying is good, lol
@bubblegumgun3292
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
yet you wear no mask, i like that, people see a harsh face, but you tell the truth so
@garymalarkey4626
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Lies, all lies!
@pgmcanalla
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Louis C.K.: "I like to think I'm a nice person, but I don't know — a lot of it is context"
@EugeneKhutoryansky
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
There is no such thing as a white lie, and I disagree with his assertion that parents teach their children that these are acceptable. I believe that the vast majority of people are honest. The few who are not try to rationalize it by convincing themselves that everyone is dishonest, and that their behavior is therefore normal. This seems to be what the person in this video is doing.
@shervinmog995
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
But what about the one that wasn't a slippery slope?
@213bic
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
I didn't know that spanish John Rambo is a psychologist…
@dennisrossonero
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Why is he saying that people aren't supposed to lie in the business world? If anything, it is more encouraged there, cause the motive is not the relationships within the workplace, but the business' success.
Comments are closed.