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Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely Quotes

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Dan Ariely is an Israeli-American psychologist and behavioral economist known for his pioneering research in the field of behavioral economics. His work primarily focuses on the irrational aspects of human decision-making and how these irrationalities affect our economic behavior. Ariely's books, 'Predictably Irrational' and 'The Upside of Irrationality', have been widely popular and provide an accessible introduction to his research findings.

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Famous Dan Ariely Quotes

“What kind of people would be able to rationalize better than other people? Better storytellers, right? Creative people, right? Because if you're creative, you find more ways to cheat and still yourself a story about why this is okay.”

People Ifs Way Kind Stills Stories Would Be Able Creative Okay Cheat Storyteller Creative People Rationalize

Author:Dan Ariely

“Dishonesty is all about the small acts we can take and then think, 'No, this not real cheating.' So if you think that the main mechanism is rationalization, then what you come up with, and that's what we find, is that we're basically trying to balance feeling good about ourselves.”

Ifs Thinking Trying Real Feelings Balance Come Up Feel Good Cheating Mechanism Dishonesty Small Acts

Author:Dan Ariely

“If you think of people as making decisions actively, every time we think about the cup of coffee, we say, "How much will I enjoy the cup of coffee, what else could I not do in the future because I buy this cup of coffee?”

People Ifs Thinking Enjoy Decision Coffee Cups Coffee Cup Making Decisions

Author:Dan Ariely

“Kids don't care what party they have, right? They want cake and they want to run around. Nothing else matters. But in this escalation, all the kids want parties like their friends. So, if all the friends have an amazing, expensive party, they all want the same thing. If we all got to scale down as a coordinated effort, all the kids would have been just as happy.”

Ifs Want Has Beens Matter Care Running Kids Party Effort Don't Care Scales Expensive Cake Escalation

Author:Dan Ariely

“Scaling down individually is very hard. Imagine that if you go to a place where everybody is dressed nicely, and you are the only one who doesn't dress nicely. Everybody goes on vacations to a great place and you go to the Jersey shore. It's very hard to do these things without an organized mechanism, but it looks to me like there might be some organized mechanisms.”

Ifs Looks Hard Might Imagine Goes On Dresses Organized Shore Vacation Mechanism Imagine That Jersey Jersey Shore

Author:Dan Ariely

“Money is a wonderful invention. It lets us save, it lets us specialize, right? I couldn't be a professor if there wasn't any money. Every day I would have to raise chicken and bread and broccoli and go ahead and spend all my time trading. So, money is a wonderful mechanism.”

Ifs Wonderful Raises Invention Bread My Time Chickens Professors Mechanism Trading Broccoli

Author:Dan Ariely

“Money are very difficult to think about. So, we think about money as the opportunity cost of money. So, we at some point went to a Toyota dealership and we asked people, what will you not be able to do in the future if you bought this Toyota?”

People Ifs Thinking Able Opportunity Difficult Cost Toyota Opportunity Cost

Author:Dan Ariely

“Money actually becomes even more difficult than other things because it's very hard to imagine what the benefits are to saving. So, imagine that you see a new bicycle, a new pair of shoes, or something today. You know exactly what you are giving up if you are not buying it, what are you gaining in the future if you are not getting it. So, you are giving up the bicycle today, what is it in the future? What will happen if you send another $1,000 to your retirement fund? What difference will it make? It is very, very hard to figure out.”

Ifs Knows Giving Hard Happens Today Difficult Differences Imagine Figures Giving Up Benefits Shoes Saving Buying Fund Pairs Retirement Imagine That Bicycle Pair Of Shoes

Author:Dan Ariely

“Money is very difficult to think about. So, we think about money as the opportunity cost of money. So, we at some point went to a Toyota dealership and we asked people, what will you not be able to do in the future if you bought this Toyota? Now, you would expect people to have an answer. But people were kind of shocked by the question. They never thought about it before. So, the most we got was people said, "Well, if I can't buy this Toyota, if I buy this Toyota, I can't buy a Honda." What is this thing? What is this value of price? Very hard to think about it.”

People Ifs Thinking Wells Kind Said I Can Hard Able Values Opportunity Difficult Answers Cost Shocked Toyota Opportunity Cost Honda

Author:Dan Ariely

“We're actually trying to develop an iPhone app, now that the Droid is out, we'll do it for that as well, if we ever learn how to program on this thing. But the idea is that to make money concrete. So, you can do this app, and it's not out there, but you can do the app. And you say, "I like vacation in the Bahamas, shoes, lattes, and books." And now, when you are tempted to buy something, that thing translates in terms of the things you are interested in.”

Ifs Trying Wells Book Ideas Term Can Do Program Shoes Making Money Vacation Concrete Translate Tempted Iphone Apps Lattes Bahamas Apps For Iphone

Author:Dan Ariely

“If I gave you now, $10 as a gift, how happy would you be? Would you be happy, is the marginal $10, the best use of $10 you can use? Of course not. If I have you a CD, you know exactly what you are getting and you will have a value for it. So, money has lots of problems with it.”

Ifs Knows Use Problem Values Courses Cds

Author:Dan Ariely

“With money we really fool ourselves. We are our biggest enemies with money and there are some things we can do about it. Automatic deductions are a wonderful thing. But ideally, you should wait until the end of the month, you can see how much extra money you had, and you should put that in your savings account. We don't do that too well, and if we did that, we would never save. So, what we do, is we take money out of our pocket into the saving account at the beginning of the month, take it outside of our control and as a consequence, we spend less and we save more.”

Ifs Should Wells Ends Waiting Can Do Enemy Wonderful Fool Months Consequence Accounts Saving Extras Pockets Wonderful Things Savings Deductions Savings Accounts

Author:Dan Ariely

“Money is a great way to get happiness. Right? Lots of wonderful things you can do with money. The question is, are we really optimizing on that? So, if you think about getting lattes and getting cable. Which one of those is actually giving you a greater happiness, and if you have to cut on one of those, which one would you cut? So, I think thinking in terms of concrete terms would help us a great deal.”

Ifs Thinking Way Giving Helping Term Can Do Deals Greater Cutting Wonderful Concrete Wonderful Things Cables Lattes

Author:Dan Ariely

“We can think about how we reduce the pain in paying. So, for example, credit cards are wonderful mechanisms to reduce the pain of paying. If you go to a restaurant and you are paying cash, you would feel much worse than if you were paying with credit card. Why? You know the price, there's no surprise, but if you're paying cash, you feel a bit more guilt.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Feels Pain Bits Wonderful Example Guilt Surprise Credit Cards Restaurants Cash Mechanism Credit Card

Author:Dan Ariely

“If you want to spend more money in restaurants, use credit cards more than cash. If you want to spend less, use cash more than credit cards. But in general, we can think about how to use the pain of paying and how much of it do we want. And I think we have like a range. Credit cards have very little pain of paying, debit cards have a little bit more because you feel like today, at least it is coming out of your checking account, and cash has much more.”

Ifs Thinking Want Feels Littles Use Today Pain Bits Little Bit Accounts Credit Cards Range Restaurants Coming Out Cash More Money Credit Card Debit Debit Cards Checking Accounts

Author:Dan Ariely

“If you have loans, the first thing you want to do is say, "Okay, look I have a credit card, if I really need to borrow, I have this emergency money that I can get, but for now there is no reason for me to keep cash at zero percent interest rate and at the same time, pay all of this money out. So, I think people need to figure out quickly how to pay loans and how much cash they should really keep.”

People Ifs Thinking Want Needs Should Firsts Looks I Can Reason Interest Pay Figures Percent Okay Rate Credit Cards No Reason Zero Cash Emergencies Loan Credit Card Interest Rate

Author:Dan Ariely

“Linking financial element to energy consumption I think has a huge role if you think about a display instrument that could teach us about what we are using, how much it costs us, how much it is saving, and therefore change our decisions.”

Ifs Thinking Energy Decision Roles Teach Huge Cost Elements Instruments Financial Saving Display Consumption Energy Consumption

Author:Dan Ariely

“Do you know how much money you would save if you changed your light bulb to compact florescent light bubs? How much would you save if you decreased your temperature of your house in the winter by one degree, or increase it by one degree? We just don't know these numbers, but I think displays could make it a memorable change in terms of attention, and also help us translate it in terms of concrete ways on what you can get.”

“Rainy day savings are incredibly important, because from time to time, bad things happen. And if you're not prepared for that, it's going to be really terrible.”

Ifs Important Happens Terrible Prepared Things Happen Saving Bad Things Savings Rainy Rainy Day Bad Things Happen

Author:Dan Ariely

“One percent of people will always be honest and never steal," the locksmith said. "Another one percent will always be dishonest and always try to pick your lock and steal your television. And the rest will be honest as long as the conditions are right - but if they are tempted enough, they'll be dishonest too. Locks won't protect you from the thieves, who can get in your house if they really want to. They will only protect you from the mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock".”

Source: The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves

“If we all make systematic mistakes in our decisions, then why not develop new strategies, tools, and methods to help us make better decisions and improve our overall well-being? That's exactly the meaning of free lunches- the idea that there are tools, methods, and policies that can help all of us make better decisions and as a consequence achieve what we desire-pg. 241”

Ifs Wells Ideas Helping Desire Decision Mistake Achieve Policy Consequence Tools Method Strategy Well Being Why Not Lunch Systematic Free Lunch

Author:Dan Ariely

“When it comes to the mental world, when we design things like health care and retirement and stock markets, we somehow forget the idea that we are limited. I think that if we understood our cognitive limitations in the same way that we understand our physical limitations … we could design a better world.”

Ifs Thinking World Way Ideas Inspiration Care Motivation Forget Design Understood Health Care Limitation Retirement Healthcare Cognitive

Author:Dan Ariely

“If you ever go bar hopping, who do you want to take with you? You want a slightly uglier version of yourself. Similar ... but slightly uglier.”

Ifs Want Inspiration Motivation Bars Versions Hopping

Author:Dan Ariely