Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely (; born April 29, 1967) is an Israeli-American professor and author. He serves as a James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. He is the co-founder of several companies implementing insights from behavioral science. Ariely wrote an advice column called "Ask Ariely" in ''The Wall Street Journal'' from June 2012 until September 2022. He is the author of the three ''New York Times'' best selling books '' Predictably Irrational'', '' The Upside of Irrationality'', and '' The Honest Truth about Dishonesty''. He co-produced the 2015 documentary '' (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies''.

In 2021, a paper with Ariely as the fourth author was discovered to be based on falsified data and was subsequently retracted. In 2024, Duke completed a three-year confidential investigation and according to Ariely concluded that "data from the honesty-pledge paper had been falsified but found no evidence that Ariely used fake data knowingly".

Ariely's life, research, and book ''Predictably Irrational'' inspired the NBC television series '' The Irrational''; it premiered on September 25, 2023.

Family and personal life

Dan Ariely was born to Yoram and Dafna Ariely in New York City while his father was studying for an MBA at Columbia University. He has two younger sisters. The family emigrated to Israel when he was three years old. He grew up in Ramat Hasharon.

In his senior year of high school, Ariely was active in Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, an Israeli youth movement. While he was preparing a ' (fire inscription) for a traditional nighttime ceremony, the flammable materials he was mixing exploded, causing third-degree burns to over 70 percent of his body. In his writings entitled "Painful Lessons", Ariely described his hospitalization and treatments, detailing how that experience led to his research on "how to better deliver painful and unavoidable treatments to patients".

Ariely was previously married to Sumedha (Sumi) Gupta in 1998; they have two children.

Education and academic career

Ariely was a physics and mathematics major at Tel Aviv University but transferred to philosophy and psychology. However, in his last year, he dropped philosophy and concentrated solely on psychology, graduating in 1991. In 1994, he earned a master's degree in cognitive psychology and a Ph.D. two years later from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed a second Ph.D. in business administration at Duke University in 1998, at the urging of Daniel Kahneman.

Ariely taught at MIT between 1998 and 2008, where he was the Alfred P. Sloan professor of behavioral economics. In 2006, when he was a professor at the MIT Media Lab, Ariely conducted experiments including administering electric shocks with a research assistant who had no human–subject training. As a consequence, MIT's ethics committee banned Ariely from supervising data collection for a year. Ariely confirmed that he was suspended from supervising data collection at MIT and said that he wasn't aware that the research assistant did not have the needed one-hour online human–subject training.

In 2008, he returned to Duke University as the James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics. His laboratory at Duke, the Center for Advanced Hindsight, pursues research in subjects like the psychology of money, decision making by physicians and patients, cheating, and social justice.

In 2008, Ariely, along with his co-authors, Rebecca Waber, Ziv Carmon, and Baba Shiv, was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in medicine for their research demonstrating that "high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine".

In 2010, Ariely told NPR in an interview that data from Delta Dental, an insurance provider, showed that dentists frequently (with a probability of "about 50 percent") misdiagnosed cavities when analyzing X-rays, and he speculated that this might happen so that dentists could charge more money. A Delta Dental spokesperson denied collecting data that could support such a claim. Ariely maintained that he was told about the finding by a Delta Dental medical officer. This was confirmed in a 2024 article in'' The Chronicle of Higher Education''.

In 2021, a 2012 paper written by Francesca Gino, Max H. Bazerman, Nina Mazar, Lisa L Shu, and Ariely was discovered to be based on falsified data and was subsequently retracted. In 2024, Duke completed a three-year confidential investigation, and according to Ariely, concluded that "data from the honesty-pledge paper had been falsified but found no evidence that Ariely used fake data knowingly".

In July 2021, the journal '' Psychological Science'' challenged a 2004 paper by James Heyman and Ariely, "prompted by some uncertainty regarding the values of statistical tests reported in the article and the analytic approach taken to the data". The authors were unable to resolve the ambiguities, because the original participant-level data was no longer available. A follow-up analysis, and a letter to the editor by Gregory Francis from the Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, demonstrated that the problem in the paper could be a simple reporting error in which ''t''-statistics were reported as ''F''-statistics by mistake. Francis also showed that this error does not negate the findings in the original article.

In November 2022, the Israeli TV investigative show ''Hamakor'' ( Channel 13), aired an episode questioning a number of Ariely's studies that were not reproducible or whose reliability was dubious in terms of the way they were carried out, the data collected, or whether the studies were carried out at all. For example, Ariely claimed that data for his "Ten Commandments" study were collected in 2004–2005 at UCLA with the assistance of Aimee Drolet Rossi. However, despite being thanked in the 2004 paper for collecting the data almost 20 years later, Rossi denies having run the study, and UCLA has issued a statement that the study did not take place there.

Professional ventures and affiliations

Early in his career, Ariely co-founded the behavioral economics consulting firm BEworks, which was acquired by Kyu in 2017.

In 2012, aspiring to develop a time management app that helps people "use time better" and avoid procrastination, Ariely co-founded Timeful with Yoav Shoham and Jacob Bank. The app was acquired by Google in 2015.

In 2013, Ariely and Kristen Berman co-founded Irrational Labs, a consulting firm aimed at applying behavioral economics to consumer behavior and decision-making.

In 2014, Ariely co-founded the kitchen appliance company Genie with Ayelet Carasso-Stenberg and Doron Marco. Genie manufactures a food "replicator" that cooks freeze-dried meals in cartridges.

In 2015, Ariely invested in Qapital, a personal finance app, and was appointed as its chief behavioral economist. He was later named chairman of the board.

In 2016, he took on the position of chief behavioral officer at Lemonade, an insurance company that integrates aspects of behavioral economics into its insurance model.

Ariely's entrepreneurial ventures also include founding Shapa in 2017, a company focused on health monitoring and behavior change.

Media

Ariely has appeared in several documentary films and television productions.

In 2011, he worked on the documentary ''The Flaw'', which investigates the causes of the 2008 financial crisis. In it, Ariely explained and presented scientific data on the forces that shape human behavior, motivation, and decision-making.

In 2015, Ariely appeared in another documentary, '' (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies''. It explores three key themes: why people lie, how often they do it, and the consequences of dishonest behavior.

Ariely contributed to ''Boom Bust Boom'', a 2015 documentary about economic crashes.

In 2019, he appeared in '' The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley'', a documentary that tracks the rise and fall of Theranos.

In 2022, he contributed to ''Why Like This? Lama Kacha'', a Hebrew television series broadcast on Kan 11. In it, Ariely distilled complex scientific concepts and provided accessible explanations for the forces that shape human behavior, motivation, and decision-making.

Ariely has also presented talks at several TED, with titles such as "Our Buggy Moral Code" and "Unraveling the Mysteries of Human Behavior".

"Ask Ariely" ''WSJ'' advice column

From June 2012 to September 2022, Ariely contributed a weekly advice column titled "Ask Ariely" to ''The Wall Street Journal''.

''The Irrational'' TV show

Ariely's life, research, and best-selling book '' Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions'' inspired the NBC television series '' The Irrational'', which premiered on September 25, 2023. The show's protagonist, Professor Alec Mercer, who is portrayed by Jesse L. Martin, was based on Ariely.

''(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies''

Directed by Yael Melamede and released in 2015, '' (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies'' is a documentary film exploring dishonesty in contemporary society. Ariely presents the film, offering analysis on the psychological mechanisms that drive deceit. With references to behavioral experiments and anecdotes—from athletic and academic cheating to political scandals—Ariely draws on his research on behavioural economics and irrationality to shed light on why and how people lie. Numerous people make appearances in the documentary, including the author and marketer Ryan Holiday, to share their personal experiences with dishonesty and lies.

Bibliography

Books

* ''Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions'' (2008; second edition in 2012). HarperCollins.
* ''The Upside of Irrationality'' (2010). HarperCollins.
* ''The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves'' (2012; second edition in 2013). HarperCollins.
* ''Behavioral Economics Saved My Dog: Life Advice for the Imperfect Human'' (2015). Oneworld.
* ''Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pick-up Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles'' (2015). HarperCollins.
* ''Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations'' (2016). Simon & Schuster / TED.
* ''Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter'' (2017). Co-authored with Jeff Kreisler. HarperCollins.
* ''Small Change: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them'' (2018). Co-authored with Jeff Kreisler. Pan Macmillan.
* ''Amazing Decisions: The Illustrated Guide to Improving Business Deals and Family Meals'' (2019, illustrated by Matt R. Trower), Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* ''Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things'' (2023), Bonnier Books UK.

Selected publications

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References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariely, Dan
1967 births
Living people
Jewish American economists
Social scientists from New York City
Ig Nobel laureates
Behavioral economists
Israeli economists
21st-century Israeli Jews
Fuqua School of Business alumni
Duke University faculty
MIT Sloan School of Management faculty
Tel Aviv University alumni
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Positive psychologists
MIT Media Lab people
21st-century American economists
21st-century American Jews