Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains why abstract laboratory tests of honesty show no cross-cultural difference even when real-world corruption rates vary drastically by country.
Assertion Partly supported
Abstract dishonesty experiment found identical cheating rates across all countries
“Then Francesca Gino, my friend, said, ah, come to Italy. We'll show you what the Italians can do. The Italians cheated just the same. We tried Turkey. We tried South Africa, Kenya, Germany, Sweden. We tried Portugal. We tried the UK. We tried Canada because th…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Recruiters secretly prefer hiring candidates who will cheat for the company
“We gave MBAs resumes of potential job candidates. And in those resumes, those people were either told, said that they were, it was said about them that they were either dishonest in their personal lives, like to the significant other. They were dishonest at wo…”
Assertion Partly supported
Shaper scale users lost weight while standard scale users gained it
“So we just finished a large study. Some people got the regular scale and those people gained a little bit of weight every month. And some people got our scale and they lost 0.7% of their body weight every month for five months. The people with the regular scal…”
Insight
Standard economics only works for perfectly rational agents
“And then because of that standard economics continues in having recommendation that are really good for people who are perfectly rational. Whereas behavioral economics makes recommendations that are good for normal people.”
Insight
Almost no company is willing to seriously address institutional dishonesty
“It's kind of interesting that when you talk about, you know, how to get people to save more, it's easier to get people to do something, how to get people to be healthier. But when you talk about honesty, almost no company is interested in taking like a real, r…”
Insight
Complex and deliberate actions require explicit rules rather than habits
“And you can't have a habit of running, right? You don't go running and then you say, oh, where am I? I have no idea. I was running. So, so for things that are deliberate and take actions, you need something more than a habit.”