The Honest Truth About Dishonesty

This book is fascinating! I kept wanting to share the findings with everyone. The format makes it easy to understand what the author claims about our behavior - each claim is setup with a story, so we can relate to it in real life, then there is a description of the experiment, and then the findings are very simply described. I think that some of the research could have benefitted from more subjects or more repeats to get stronger indications of the measure, but all in all it was good.

Perhaps the best part is that you can walk away from this book with an idea of how to prevent yourself from lying to yourself or others...and how you might setup situations such that others are less likely to lie or cheat you.

Also, the author conducts interviews all the time, and you can find them on his website to hear more about behavior research from other researchers.

Short Review: The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely - great book on what science can tell us about lying and cheating and what can be done to minimize (or exacerbate) the problems. I am always a bit uncomfortable with small studies that are included in most behavior economics, but I trust the science here a bit more than in someone like Malcolm Gladwell's presentation because Ariely is an academic with an academic reputation to uphold.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/honest-truth/