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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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All People Thinking Ifs Want Should Motivation Decision Way Saving Knows Cost Difficult Term Helping Kind Needs Wells Bigs Debt Feels

Famous Dan Ariely Quotes

“It is helpful to think of people as having two fundamental motivations: the desire to see ourselves as honest, good people, and the desire to gain the benefits that come from cheating - on our taxes or on the football field.”

People Thinking Two Desire Motivation Honest Fields Football Taxes Benefits Gains Fundamentals Helpful Cheating Good People Football Field

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

“In the U.S., I think there is an ideology of not telling kids what to do. Nobody to tell you who to marry, not tell you what job to pick. You're your own person. You have the freedom to choose, including the freedom to fail in magnificent ways. And I think that's the big difference. In other countries there is basically a social norm about saving that is passed from generation to generation. In the U.S. there isn't.”

Thinking Way Persons Country Bigs Kids Jobs Social Differences Failing Generations Picks Including Ideology Saving Other Countries Magnificent Norm Social Norms Freedom To Choose

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

“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 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

“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

“I don't think we should go around life and being miserable all the time and feel the pain of paying. It's a question of what categories we want to spend more on and what categories we want feel that we are spending too much on and we want to cut down.”

Thinking Want Feels Should Pain Too Much Cutting Spending Miserable Categories

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.”

“You can think about life as a battle between you and a doughnut shop. The doughnut shop wants you to eat another doughnut and pay the money, and you want to do it in the short term, but in the long term it's not good for you either financially or from a health perspective.”

Thinking Want Long Term Pay Perspective Battle Long Term Shops Short Term Doughnut

Author:Dan Ariely

“For all of us, it's very hard to think about money, and because of that, we need help. In the same way that for all of us, it is hard to eat well, and we need some help. The poor have a particular challenge, which is that their life is actually much more complex - and they're much more complex cognitively.”

Thinking Way Needs Wells Hard Helping Life Is Challenges Poor Particular Complexes Need Help Help The Poor

Author:Dan Ariely

“I don't want to say that the poor are inherently cognitively diminished, but at the end of the day of making difficult, tough decisions, it's very hard to have the energy to think about things with the right mindset.”

Thinking Want Ends Hard Energy Difficult Decision Poor Tough Mindset The End Of The Day Tough Decisions

Author:Dan Ariely

“The companies that provide debt, what do you think their goal is? Is their goal for you to fully understand the cost of your debt? No. So they're basically creating these approaches to make you feel like it is incredibly cheap or just to think about the cost per day rather the cost per year or cost for a lifetime. So debt is very simple mistake.”

Thinking Feels Years Goal Simple Mistake Company Cost Approach Creating Lifetime Debt

Author:Dan Ariely

“I think we could get people to both be more productive and happier. We're less productive as individuals. We're less productive as companies, and we're more miserable.”

People Thinking Individual Miserable Productive

Author:Dan Ariely

“In total, by giving people $30 bonus, Intel lost almost 5 percent of productivity. That's a lot. Now, think about it. You give money because you think this would increase motivation. It actually decreases motivation.”

People Thinking Giving Motivation Productivity

Author:Dan Ariely

“We usually think of ourselves as sitting the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires-with how we want to view ourselves, than with reality.”

Thinking Want Made Reality Desire Decision Views Our Lives Perception Sitting Ultimate Seats Drivers Alas

Author:Dan Ariely

“Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.”

Thinking Knows Bigs Sex Know How Information Claims Witty Data Analysis Thought Provoking Provoking Teenage Analytics Databases Too Much Information Analysing

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

“When we think about labor, we usually think about motivation and payment as the same thing, but the reality is that we should probably add all kinds of things to it - meaning, creation, challenges, ownership, identity, pride, etc.”

Thinking Should Kind Reality Motivation Challenges Creation Identity Pride Labor Add All Kinds Ownership Payment

Author:Dan Ariely

“Thinking is difficult and sometimes unpleasant.”

Thinking Sometimes Difficult

Book:Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions

Source: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions