The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves is a 2012 book by the Duke University cognitive science professor Dan Ariely. It investigates why and when cheating occurs, debates its usefulness and questions how it can be discouraged.
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.
