Dan Ariely on why we lie

'The Honest Truth About Dishonesty' by Dan Ariely
Book cover courtesy of publisher

If you think you're an honest person, think again. In his latest book, "The Honest Truth About Dishonesty," Dan Ariely says we are all cheaters.

Ariely joined The Daily Circuit to talk about his new book and explain the research he used to prove we're all guilty of some unethical behavior in our lives.

"We want to view ourselves as honest, wonderful people and when we cheat ... as long as we cheat just a little bit, we can still view ourselves as good people, but once we start cheating too much ... we can't view ourselves as good people and therefore we stop," Ariely said in an interview with NPR. "So this model of trying to balance the ability to view ourselves as good people on one hand and the ability to cheat on the other hand predicts that people will cheat a little bit and they will still feel good about themselves. ... That's what we see across many, many experiments."

VIDEO: Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code

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