Predictably Irrational-Chapter 12: Summary & Response

       In chapter 12 of his book, Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely further discusses the circumstances under which people are willing to be dishonest. Ariely describes another experiment he conducted where he put soda in some common refrigerators on a college campus and six one dollar bills in other common refrigerators. Within three days the soda was gone and the money was untouched according to Ariely. Ariely conducts a second experiment involving direct money and tokens that are exchanged for money, which results in people being more dishonest when dealing with the tokens that are directly traded in for money. From this Ariely concludes that dishonesty increases when the material in question is at least a step away from money. Additionally when a medium in not monetary then our ability to rationalize dishonesty increases because this bypasses our conscious usually. Ariely also deduces that the increase in online shopping and the use of credit cards makes it easier for people to be dishonest and steal. Because this use of cash is decreasing in the current day, it is necessary to address this problem, Ariely concludes.
         According to Ariely, cheating is easier when it is one step removed from cash because this is able to bypass our conscious and we are thus able to rationalize it more easily. Ariely gives the example of taking a red pen from work when your daughter needs it being easily rationalized, but stealing the money necessary to buy a red pen from the store would be harder to rationalize. I experience this at work sometimes as well, when I need a paperclip and I'm at work I usually just take one from work rather than buying the two dollar box of paperclips at the  convenience store that is a two minute walk away. This occurs with insurance when people increase the value of individual products that were destroyed in their home for insurance to cover. This happens with investments by people backdating their investments so that when they cash them in they are worth more money. This also occurs in tax return because people write off more things in order to save more money. Ariely's reasons for cheating explain why there is a rise in identity theft because credit cards and such are one step away from money, so they are easier to rationalize stealing them than money ever was before, even though these objects virtually are money in a different form. Companies, such as airlines, legitimately steal from customers by never touching their money, but limiting what they are able to do with their non monetary substance such as miles towards a flight.