The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty

How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves

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The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty

By: Dan Ariely

Narrated by: Simon Jones

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Fascinating and provocative, Ariely’s The Truth About Dishonesty is an insightful and brilliantly researched take on cheating, deception and willpower. Internationally bestselling author Ariely pulls no punches when it comes to home truths.

Previous titles PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL and THE UPSIDE OF IRRATIONALITY have becomes classics in their field, revealing unexpected and astonishing traits that run through modern humankind. Now acclaimed behavioural economist Dan Ariely delves deeper into the dark and murky recesses of contemporary psychology, daring to ask the big questions:

What makes us cheat? How and why do we rationalise deception of ourselves and other people, and make ourselves ‘wishfully blind’ to the blindingly obvious? What affects our infuriatingly intangible willpower and how can we ‘catch’ the cheating bug from other bad apples?

If you’ve ever wondered how a whole company can turn a blind eye to evident misdemeanours within their ranks, whether people are born dishonest and whether you can really be successful by being totally, brutally honest, then Dan has the answers, and many more.

Dan ArielySimon JonesHarperCollins

Consciousness & Thought

Creativity

Economics

Personal Development

Personal Success

Philosophy

Psychology

Psychology & Mental Health

Social Psychology & Interactions

Consciousness & Thought Creativity Economics Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions

Critic reviews

‘Anyone who lies should read this book. And those who claim not to tell lies are liars. So they should read this book too. This is a fascinating, learned, and funny book that will make you a better person.’
A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically and Drop Dead Healthy

‘Dan Ariely ingeniously and delightfully teases out how people balance truthfulness with cheating to create a reality out of wishful-blindness reality. You’ll develop a deeper understanding of your own personal ethics—and those of everybody you know.’
Mehmet Oz, MD; Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University and host of The Dr. Oz Show

‘I was shocked at how prevalent mild cheating was and how much more harmful it can be, cumulatively, compared to outright fraud. This is Dan Ariely’s most interesting and most useful book.’
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan

‘A captivating and astute study […] In his characteristic spry, cheerful style, Ariely delves deep into the conundrum of human (dis)honesty in the hopes of discovering ways to help us control our behaviour and improve our outcomes.’ Publishers Weekly

‘Lucid and succinct as always […] Required reading for politicians and Wall Street executives’
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I enjoyed the book it really found it enlightening. The experiments seem to conclude ideas that I already suspected that lying is complicated and not a simple cost benefit analysis.
I found it strange how Dan was happy to put his interviews in the book that are himself, yet pay someone else to narrate a book on dishonesty. I'm not sure if this was intentional but it certainly surprised me.
Lying is something we all in fact do and this does explain and suggest some reasons as to why, but it doesn't really cross over too much into the realm of ethics or morality with the depth required. I did feel that the book went far too deep into exactly how people were tested and I would've preferred more discussion and philosophy on the morality of the results and possible conclusions.
l enjoyed it overall but felt it needed a little more work or an sequel with more analysis. I would definitely recommend it to any psychology fan or student.