"Why We Lie" By Dan Ariely

Summary

This particular piece by Dan Ariely I found to be rather intriguing. I am currently taking a psychology class that is dealing with similar situations, which made it easy for me to draw a connection. We are learning about the behavior of humans and what has an effect on their decisions. The title clearly presents that the subject topic of the text is going to examine the purpose behind, "Why we lie." The author begins to explain the concept of honesty and dishonesty by describing a situation involving one of his students. They use an analogy involving a door and a lock. The situation is to show that the purpose of the lock isn't only prevent someone from entering it's to discourage the temptation of someone opening your door. Dr. Ariely had an idea that the reason we cheat and lie might have something to do with the thought process that balances, or weighs, the cost or benefits of committing a certain action. If you had to cheat in order to gain from something would this now be a test of morality? In this text Dr. Ariely is faced with this problem and in turn creates an experiment. Subjects were given five minutes and twenty different matrices, they are told they need to find the two numbers in each matrix that add to equal ten. They are then told that they will be paid accordingly to the amount of correctly answered matrices. After the experiment is concluded they are then introduced to what Dr. Ariely likes to call the, "shredder condition." The subjects are asked to count their correct answers, place the worksheet in the shredder in the back of the class, and then tell the instructor the amount they answered correctly giving the subject the opportunity to question their value of morals. Do the maximum benefits they could potentially possess outweigh their moral values? Even though they may not consciously be making this decision this is what it simplifies down to, and unfortunately on this instance dishonesty prevails. 

Paragraph #10

Dr. Ariely has yet to be satisfied. He seems to have a good understanding that people cheat and lie, but how might we be able to prevent this behavior? No matter how hard we may try to kill this habit it may never happen, because, "everyone cheats- just by a little," and "cheating- is infectious."

Favorite Quotes

Which leads me to my overall favorite quotes from the article.

"Every one cheats- just by a little." (Pg. 441)

&

"Cheating- is infectious." (Pg. 443)

These two quotes almost sum up the whole point that Dr. Ariely is trying to portray. Once you define the purpose behind the reasons why we cheat and lie we could potentially put an end to this action right? How do we end this if, “cheating is contagious?” If we could get everyone to stop then we could end this behavior, but let us not forget that if, “everyone cheats- just by a little.” this would make it seam like an unattainable goal. There is always going to be another lie. We may never see the day where cheating and lying cease to exist but we can always move towards the future. There are ways that you can temporarily prevent the temptations of the action/behavior by stopping the small lies and introducing deterrents, such as locks on doors.

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Works Cited:  Ariely, Dan. "Why We Lie." The Bedford Reader. Twelfth ed. Boston, New York: Bedford St. Martin's, 2014. 440-48. Print.