Dan Ariely Talks Creativity and Dishonesty

"Lots of us are able to cheat a little bit and still think of ourselves as honest people."

Dan Ariely is a professor of behavior economics at Duke University.

His latest book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, explains how creativity makes us better liars even to ourselves.

"Dishonesty is all about the small acts we can take and then think, no, this is 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."

"On the one hand we get some satisfaction, some utility from thinking of ourselves as honest, moral, wonderful people."

"On the other hand we try to benefit from cheating."

"That's why rationalization is what allows you to live with some cheating and not pay a cost in terms of your own view of yourself."

"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 tell yourself a story about why this is okay."

本文节选自《60-Second Science American》