The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves
Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational, examines the contradictory forces that drive us to cheat and keep us honest, in this groundbreaking look at the way we behave: The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.
From ticket-fixing in our police departments to test-score scandals in our schools, from our elected leaders’ extra-marital affairs to the Ponzi schemes undermining our economy, cheating and dishonesty are ubiquitous parts of our national news cycle—and inescapable parts of the human condition.
Drawing on original experiments and research, in the vein of Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Survival of the Sickest, Ariely reveals—honestly—what motivates these irrational, but entirely human, behaviors.
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Community Reviews
It's a very short book with few but big experiments. But I still liked it a lot.
Pro:
Ariely is such a great writer. This is the first book of his I have read. This is very easy to understand and the experiments are presented in a very interesting way. Just really good scientific writing even though he misses 90% of the most important experiments on the subject. If you like popular science this is a very interesting book, no matter if the subject interests you or not. And it is also a book that makes you exiting about reading more on the topic.
Con:
This book is very short. It only presents a few experiments he did. It's a look into how psychologists do experiments and how we understand experiments. This is not a conclusive book on cheating. But it does tell us that ALL human beings cheat as we are born to cheat like all other animals. That point is presented well as that is the point of the book. We all cheat and some things make us cheat more and some things make us cheat less, we are all humans.
Pro:
Ariely is such a great writer. This is the first book of his I have read. This is very easy to understand and the experiments are presented in a very interesting way. Just really good scientific writing even though he misses 90% of the most important experiments on the subject. If you like popular science this is a very interesting book, no matter if the subject interests you or not. And it is also a book that makes you exiting about reading more on the topic.
Con:
This book is very short. It only presents a few experiments he did. It's a look into how psychologists do experiments and how we understand experiments. This is not a conclusive book on cheating. But it does tell us that ALL human beings cheat as we are born to cheat like all other animals. That point is presented well as that is the point of the book. We all cheat and some things make us cheat more and some things make us cheat less, we are all humans.
On the pro side, some of these influences are important to know about in one's personal life and in legal and policy work. On the con side, this book is pretty repetitive if you've read Ariely's other books as I have. Additionally, though I'm aware that this is all based on studies, the lack of actual moral or spiritual perspective in the book is disappointing. Compare for example Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis or The Righteous Mind.
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