“The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves” Dan Ariely, Harper; 285 pages, $26.99 We like to think of ourselves as honest. Yet in reality we all cheat, says behavioral economist Dan Ariely in his new book, “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.”
No wonder the euro is falling apart.
Ariely is the Duke University professor who wrote “Predictably Irrational,” a look at how irrational behavior bends our lives in predictable ways. Though his new book doesn’t discuss the euro debacle, it does document a human trait that has warped the single currency from the beginning.
Our behavior reflects two conflicting motives, Ariely posits: We want to feel good when we look in the mirror, yet we also hope to benefit from cheating, he says, drawing on experiments with thousands of people. The upshot: We cheat just a little, not enough to dent our self-image, he says.
Picture a job seeker padding a résumé. Or a Wall Street banker tweaking valuations on an Excel spreadsheet. We’re all capable of fudging and telling ourselves stories about why our actions are nonetheless acceptable.
“Very few people steal to a maximal degree,” Ariely writes. “But many good people cheat just a little here and there by rounding up their billable hours, claiming higher losses on their insurance claims, recommending unnecessary treatments.” James Pressley, Bloomberg News
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