Dan Ariely quotes

It is helpful to think of people as having two fundamental motivations: the desire to see ourselves as honest, good people, and the desire to gain the benefits that come from cheating - on our taxes or on the football field. (Dan Ariely)
Dishonesty is all about the small acts we can take and then think, 'No, this not real cheating.' So if you think that the main mechanism is rationalization, then what you come up with, and that's what we find, is that we're basically trying to balance feeling good about ourselves. View quote
Dan Ariely
Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities. View quote
Dan Ariely
Marketing is all about providing information that will heighten someone's anticipated and real pleasure. View quote
Dan Ariely
Because cheating is easier when we can justify our behavior, people often cheat in small amounts: We can come up with an excuse for stealing Post-It notes, but it is much more difficult to come up with an excuse for taking $10,000 from petty cash. View quote
Dan Ariely
The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you're actually more and more likely to fail. View quote
Dan Ariely
We should teach the students, as well as executives, how to conduct experiments, how to examine data, and how to use these tools to make better decisions. View quote
Dan Ariely
Disasters are usually a good time to re-examine what we've done so far, what mistakes we've made, and what improvements should come next. View quote
Dan Ariely
I always found the appeal to the market gods a bit odd. Why would the market fix mistakes instead of aggravating them? View quote
Dan Ariely
Honesty is a complex and tricky thing, and we don't want to be honest all the time. View quote
Dan Ariely
One of the big lessons from behavioral economics is that we make decisions as a function of the environment that we're in. (Dan Ariely)
People are irrational - and predictably so. View quote
Dan Ariely
The idea that you will make the right decision every time is very unlikely. View quote
Dan Ariely
With everything you do, in fact, you should train yourself to question your repeated behaviors. View quote
Dan Ariely
The things that motivate us are to help other people, to feel that we're useful, to feel that we're getting better, to feel that we are kind of living to our potential, to get a sense of meaning. All of those things are positive. View quote
Dan Ariely
The major thing that holds you back when you're trying to change a bad habit like eating, smoking, or drinking too much is your belief you are out of control. View quote
Dan Ariely
Thinking is difficult and sometimes unpleasant. View quote
Dan Ariely
If you get people to feel that they are putting something, that they are creating it and so on, their love for the project would increase. The more something is yours, the more you're willing to invest in it. View quote
Dan Ariely
Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination. View quote
Dan Ariely
Your immediate environment is comprised of coffee shops, supermarkets, websites, apps and all kinds of things - none of which have an interest in your long-term or short-term financial well-being. View quote
Dan Ariely
Brands communicate in two directions: they help us tell other people something about ourselves, but they also help us form ideas about who we are. (Dan Ariely)
You can think about life as a battle between you and a doughnut shop. The doughnut shop wants you to eat another doughnut and pay the money, and you want to do it in the short term, but in the long term it's not good for you either financially or from a health perspective. View quote
Dan Ariely
The most difficult thing is to recognize that sometimes we too are blinded by our own incentives. Because we don't see how our conflicts of interest work on us. View quote
Dan Ariely
When you're in pain, tomorrow doesn't exist - just the pain - and the only thing that you want in the world is for it to go away. View quote
Dan Ariely
In a world where everyone is behaving honestly, any dishonesty constitutes a big infraction. But, in a world where many people are behaving dishonestly, and the news is filled with stories of their infractions, even big infractions can feel small to the perpetrator. View quote
Dan Ariely