REVIEW: “The whole (truth) is about untruth. Why and how we cheat ", Dan Ariely

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Everyone lies

(c) Dr. House

We live in a world of lies. Politicians, colleagues, even relatives and friends lie to us. We deceive the state, bosses, spouses and even ourselves.

The only difference is in scale. We call the lies of a loved one betrayal, the lies of strangers - fraud.

Everyone lies. Everyone knows that everyone lies. And everyone obediently accepts the rules of this "game".

But no one thinks about the socio-psychological reasons for deception. The book "The Whole (Truth) About Falsehood" aims to understand why and how we cheat.

Its author is Ph. D. in cognitive psychology and entrepreneurship, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, founder of the Center for Retrospective Research - Dan Ariely.

Dan is only 45, but he is the author of many scientific works exploring the irrational side of human nature. In particular, several monographs came out from under his pen: “Behavioral Economics. Why people behave irrationally and how to make money on it”,“Positive irrationality”.

"All (the truth) about untruth" is the third book by Dan Arieli. The annotation to it says: it "… will change our perception of ourselves, our actions and the actions of other people." Whether my perception has changed, I will answer a little later, but for now general impressions of what I have read.

Simple Model Of Rational Crime (SMORC)

SMORC is a simple rational crime model. The author of this theory is Gary Becker, who received the Nobel Prize in 1992 "for extending the field of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of aspects of human behavior and interaction, including non-market behavior."

While working at the University of Chicago in the 60s of the last century, Dr. Becker developed the so-called simple model of rational crime. According to his concept, a person decides to lie or not to lie (to steal or not to steal) by analyzing three aspects:

1. What benefits will he get?

2. What is the likelihood that the deception will be revealed?

3. And what punishment will follow if this happens?

That is, all possible risks are assessed and if the benefits looming on the horizon exceed them, a crime is committed.

In other words, if you know for sure that "slightly" embellished travel allowances will not result in dismissal, you will certainly overestimate the amount in the report. And vice versa: you will not even take a paper clip from the workplace, knowing that there is a surveillance camera in the office.

Too straightforward and out of touch with reality? You're right. And Dan Ariely proves on 250 pages that the reasons and mechanism of deception are much more irrational than in Becker's model.

Advantages of the book

In particular, by his experiments, he showed that the propensity to cheat does not depend either on the size of the jackpot, or on the fear of being caught, or on the possibility of covering up the tracks. It is much more important for a person to remain honest in their own eyes. After all, none of us was born with a deaf and dumb conscience.

Description of experiments and their results is the main content of the book. At the same time, some of them seem indisputable, while others cause outrage. For example, the link between wearing fake items and subsequent cheating is not as obvious to me as it is to the author. Otherwise, Vietnam would be called a nation of liars.

However, one cannot fail to note the manner in which the essence and the course of research are presented. Dan asks his readers a lot of questions, makes them reason, make assumptions about the outcome of an experiment. This creates a sense of involvement. The reader is not an outside observer, he is a participant, a member of a research group.

In addition, Dan Arieli has a very light and ironic syllable. Believe me, you will smile more than once while reading this book. Including when you recognize yourself in a given situation.

What was missing

Yes, I now know that lying is often irrational. It depends on the conflict of interest, the inner moral core, the social group in which I belong, and many other factors. But what should I do with all this?

Reading "The whole (truth) about untruth", I was expecting that, on the next page, they would give me good advice on how to deal with the liars around and, most importantly, how to overcome the liar in myself.

And although the shadow of "author's recommendations" sometimes flickered (in particular, the theory of self-control as a muscle, also set forth in Kelly McGonigal's book "Willpower"), the miracle did not happen.

In addition, the book does not touch (or rather touch upon, but in passing) a very important point. The so-called salvation lie. Admit to cheating or lie, but keep the family? Should a terminally ill patient be told his diagnosis or left in serene ignorance? Difficult questions. And perhaps they deserve a separate book.

And answering the question posed at the beginning: has my perception changed? - I will answer "No".

Summary

Everyone lies. And Dan Ariely, although he makes this process clearer, does not give an answer on how to deal with it. However, I think he did not pursue such a goal.

Nevertheless, after reading the book, there is no heavy sediment left on the soul. There is no sense of despair or disgust. We live in a world of lies. And, alas, we accept the rules of the “game”.

Dan Arieli's book "The Whole (Truth) About Lies" will not make you and those around you honest overnight, but it will help you understand the origins of the irrationality of deception, and the world will become a little clearer.