TEDxWoodsHole - Dan Ariely - Temptations and Self-Control

One of the challenges of human life is what's good for us in the long term often doesn't seem good for us right now. Dieting, for example, is not so much fun now, but good for the future; the same goes for saving money or submitting to preventive medical tests. When we face such tradeoffs, we often focus on the short term rather than our long-terms goals, and in the process we get ourselves into trouble. But wait! There is hope. By understanding where we fall short, there are methods we can use to overcome our natural (and less than desirable) inclinations.

Using simple experiments, Dan Ariely studies how people actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational. His interests span a wide range of daily behaviors and his experiments are consistently interesting, amusing, and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom. Dan is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions and of The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Ways We Defy Logic at Work and at Home. Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University.

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