Ariely's Chapter 11 Predictability Irrational

In chapter eleven of Predictability Irrational Dan Ariely discusses the role of honesty in our society. He states that lying and cheating can disturb our moral compass, what he means by this is that it could affect our emotions and how we go about the world. Ariely brings up to forms of dishonesty, there is white collar theft and robbery theft. White collar theft would be like stealing a pen from the office, while robbery theft is when one is planning their dishonesty to lets say rob a bank. An experiment was performed at Harvard University and a few other universities. What the experiment did was separate students into 3 different groups and allowed them to teach and get away with it. WHat the results showed were that people who knew they would get away with it were more willing to cheat than those who weren't sure if they would get away with it. Another experiment that was performed was to test peoples morality. For this experiment those individuals given the test and were told that they could cheat had to first sign an honor code. The results for this showed that showed that those who signed the code did not cheat, while others who didn't sign the moral code were more likely to cheat. Ariely concludes by stating that we all get the urge to be dishonest but we should acknowledge that and take the path of honesty.

Ariely states that honesty is the best policy because it is what keeps a person sane and if each individual was honest it would make everyones lives run a bit easier. To curb dishonesty in our lives we could be laws taken like honor codes or oaths we sign, this way people feel morally obligated to be honest. When people are reminded of religious values or signing a moral statement they stop cheating completely because it goes against their practices and if they cheat they wouldn't only be lying to one they would be lying to themselves and potentially to God. Students deal with all forms or temptations to be dishonest on a daily basis. Some temptations include, cheating on a test, or borrowing homework or stealing food from the kitchen. Some small transgressions that students may commit and rationalize would be to steal a hair tie from someone who has a lot or stealing a pencil because you know your going to need it in the future. These items are both small and easily replaceable I think thats why people steal it without feeling guilty.