Predictably Irrational-Chapter 11: Summary & Response

         In this chapter of Dan Ariely's book, Predictably Irrational, he discussing the honesty of people and the conditions under which they become dishonest. Ariely begins his discussion by analyzing how white collar crimes are much more severe and common in terms of dishonesty and involve much more money than direct robberies that occur. Ariely point out, though, that these white collar crimes are treated much less severely, and wonders why this is. He then discusses a series of experiments he conducted with some of his colleagues to test the dishonesty of people who are generally perceived as honest. The first experiment he conducted came to the conclusion that honest people do cheat when given the opportunity, but once tempted with cheating the risk of being caught is not influential in whether or not people cheat. Ariely states that honesty truly does prevail in most cultures due to the stimulation by reward, but when it is only a little dishonest our superego stays out of the picture and people are dishonest. From the next experiment conducted, the conclusion was that when people are reminded of morality, they are less likely to be dishonest. Ariely then discusses how professionalism is declining in our society. The final experiment Ariely describes is one that resulted in the conclusion that when we are reminded of morality right before, we are more likely to be honest in whatever activity we are performing next. So, Ariely concludes that people will cheat when given the chance, but are less likely to if they are reminded of morality before the opportunity to cheat is given.
         According to Ariely, honesty is the best policy because with honesty there is some sort of reward given to people, which is what they are influenced by to be honest, whether that be a clear conscious or something material. In order to curb dishonesty in our lives we could think about the morality of what we are doing and think of the reward we get for being honest. On a daily basis, students deal with temptations such as cheating in a class in order to get ahead, stealing in order to save money, and lying in order to give a valid excuse for themselves. On a daily basis students will copy homework or cheat on homework, which they rationalize by saying that is saves them time and gives them more time to sleep, which they really need or by saying that they really need to get the answers right otherwise they might do poorly in the class. Additionally students are tempted to steal and rationalize stealing things like utensils and fruit from the dining hall, which they rationalize by saying that they are paying an exorbitant amount of money in order to go to school and eat here, so it's the least the school could do. Another temptation of students is to lie to professors about why they were not in class, which they rationalize by saying that sometimes they just need a break and they cannot afford for their grade to go down just because they were not physically sitting in a room for an hour.