Markian Lozowchuk
Ariely's last book, Predictably Irrational-a collection of 13 stories about why people are so bad at making simple decisions-has sold 1.2 million copies since 2008. Now, the Duke University professor and behavioural economist is back with a follow-up, The Upside of Irrationality, which examines what drives us at work and in our personal lives. Doug Steiner talked to Ariely about the book, his sometimes wacky experiments and why the Net might not be the best place to meet your soulmate.
How do you describe your work? I am a social hacker. I don't have the patience and stamina to solve problems. My work is about people's motivation and happiness, and the ability to change things.
In The Upside of Irrationality, you describe your recovery from severe burns sustained in an explosion. Why did you get personal? It was very gratifying to hear from readers about how my first book had changed their thinking. It made me more comfortable about revealing more about myself. Upside describes how my injury shaped my insight, how I became curious and, finally, how I came to use experiments to validate my actions and feelings.
You describe how when people are paid too much, they become suboptimal performers-something you're now talking to the SEC about. What did you find? Yes, paid too much to work. More money is good, but we found that higher incentives work for simple mechanical tasks only. This work, sadly, has not yet led to much change from compensation committees. It's all based on comparison with corporate peers, and they are no experts in incentives.
Where do people make the worst decisions? I am looking at the three areas that most affect behaviour and bad choices: financial services, life insurance and health care. Companies in these areas control a large number of short-term mistakes that people make, by not letting them think about decisions that will affect them far in the future. I was really taken with your exploration of "hedonic adaptation"-the idea that people do exactly the wrong thing when it comes to both pleasant and unpleasant tasks. If you are doing something you hate, like working on your tax return, then it's better to work straight through, without taking breaks, and the opposite for something you like doing. But things that you think will make you happy longer term-like buying a new sofa or car-change over time. You adapt to the new thing. We found that anticipation, savouring the experience and the joy from memory are as strong as the experience itself. Enjoyment isn't from the moment-it's much more complex.
Upside addresses compatibility, perceptions and the realities of finding a romantic partner. What did you find out about online dating? It's incredibly useful-there is no centralized market for romance. There is no yenta. The problem is that these sites are not compatible for human consumption. They describe people like digital cameras-with statistics like pixel size and minimum aperture. We got subjects to pick out 50 people that they liked and 50 that they didn't like, and asked each of those 100 people to describe themselves. Then we sorted those descriptions and asked the original subjects to pick out the 50 people they'd liked. They couldn't do it based on the descriptions. It's like wine-you need to taste it. We invented a simple system that doubles the likelihood of going on a date.
Who are your best readers? People who are willing to question their own lives and the science of everyday living. How we interact and how to buy a sofa. It's people who see themselves in the book and reflect on changing decisions based on what they read.
Did I make a good decision to read your book? It depends on your motivation.