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Dan Ariely on how symbolic wealth makes us act dishonestly

submitted by wagthedog1
1 decade 5 years 4 months ago

Dan Ariely describes his experiment of leaving 6 coke drinks vs. 6 dollars in a public place to test effect on ethical behavior. He extrapolates this result to a society that is dominated by symbolic representations of wealth: asset portfolios, credit, mortgage-backed bonds, etc.

The Professor of behavioral economics also alluded to this experiment in his TED talk:
http://philosophy.videosift.com/video/Why-we-think-it-s-OK-to-cheat-and-steal-sometimes

This video is part of a series promoting his book: Predictably Irrational: Expanded and Revised Edition (2009) in which he takes classical rational-based economics to task.

9 Comments

Nice sift. Helps explain how I rationalize torrents, eh?

infinitely interesting...

"It's become possible for people to be dishonest and still think of themselves as honest."

That's America in a nutshell.

Credit Card huxters, HMO cheats, Wall Street brigands, K Street lobbyists, the list is long (pay day loans and adjustable rate mortgages also come to mind).

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Dan Ariely, predictably irrational, stealing, coke, cash' to 'Dan Ariely, predictably irrational, stealing, coke, cash, the context of character' - edited by kronosposeidon

kronosposeidon

*promote *talks

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, May 24th, 2009 4:58pm PDT - promote requested by kronosposeidon.

Adding video to channels (Talks) - requested by kronosposeidon.

This reminds me of how after I took a Philosophy of Law class, I don't believe laws are laws unless they are regularly enforced. In other words,
"I didn't break the law unless I got caught" kind of thinking. My LAW class made me more criminal in thinking!

The problem here is coke belongs in a fridge, a plate of money does not. The oddity of the plate of money being in the fridge might be enough to stop people from taking it, be it because they think someone is watching them or whatever.

Yeah, I'm not sure I follow his interpretation of the results either. Less cash equals more theft. I wouldn't steal your cash, but I'd steal your credit card and perform identity theft?

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