What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things? (Dan Ariely)

The Michael Shermer Show # 384
Tickets for our December event available now: skeptic.com/event
Shermer and Ariely discuss: What is disinformation and what should we do about it? • How do we know what is true and what to believe? • virtue signaling one’s tribe as a misbelief factor • the role of complex stories in misbelief • emotions, personality, temperament, trust, politics, and social aspects of belief and misbelief • the funnel of belief • social proof and the influence of others on our beliefs • social media companies responsibility for disinformation • What would it take to change your mind?
Dan Ariely is the bestselling author of Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and is the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere.
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[@jenniferwang4766]

I guess we’re just not going to talk about Dan’s fraudulent research.

[@VaughanMcCue]

Could you provide links that support your comment? Thanks in anticipation.

[@Boldra]

Thanks, I only came here to hear Ariely address the accusations.

[@cringedproductions]

@@VaughanMcCue kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2TXhHpuncSCaaM Sources on channel

[@richardpentelow5111]

And his innovative use of fonts that highlight the “additional data”. What a chump.

[@JB-lovin]

One of the most ironic discussions I’ve heard on KZbin. Why do people irrationally believe that Israel is right to kill thousands of innocents? Why do they believe a god gave them the land?

[@sergiosatelite467]

18 minutes in and it hasn’t occurred to Dan that he also has an identity-influencing lens as well. Pretty Unironic.

[@YuTv1408]

Cool. That open house sounds fun

[@XxXgabbO95XxX]

As soon as Dan Ariely got exposed as a fraud, Shermer invites him. Of course.

[@TrevK0]

I'll be absolutely flabbergasted if that is not brought up once

[@Pacer...]

😂

[@jacksonfrost9710]

it's incredible how much respect i've recently lost for a man who used to be one of my early heroes. the channel is called, quite literally, "skeptic", and in the past month, he takes interviews (for which he is probably paid) of lee mcintyre on the subject of disinformation and dan ariely on the subject of anything remotely adjacent to his discredited and apparently largely fabricated professional research. i guess making a few bucks trumps healthy skepticism.

[@thinclient5318]

I will never read his(Dan's) books because of that(fake data). I don't trust Dan anymore.

[@multitudeofidols]

@@jacksonfrost9710 At this point, I still wonder why I remain subscribed to this channel.

[@arthurwieczorek4894]

"It's hard to believe in something 100% when you hear opposite opinions." ...accept when you can see so clearly that the opinions are foundationless. Then you believe more.

[@bradleyfitzik2447]

This is a very important topic. Bravo for discussing it 👏

[@Hollis_has_questions]

1/ I love the beard as part of the whole look. 2/ Have y'all examined whether the ability to kill and commit intentional atrocities is natural in Homo sapiens or must it be indoctrinated from early childhood? If the latter, does gathering in the madness of crowds make it easier to hate, from mild to murderous violence? 3/ When I turned 60, I thought, "I'm going to take my gloves off and speak my mind." But in all things I want to be a civil person, polite while disagreeing but not lying or being false and never being rude. Now I'm almost 70. About three or four years ago I decided that I wanted to devote the last part of my life to inspiring creativity and critical thinking while at the same time demonstrating the importance of humour throughout life, one person at a time. I'm sort of a recluse; since earliest childhood I've always preferred being at home. But I think of myself now as an anchorite. Instead of discussions held from a window, mine are most effectively held via phone. I want these conversations to be my legacy. And I continue to challenge former President Trump to a Perfect Phone Call Competition to be held live on the internet. I've challenged him twice on the former Twitter but have not yet heard back. Btw, I love the new name, X. When you post comments, you're "eXting" or just "exting." What is posted is an "eXt" or "ext." Nothing could be easier!

[@richardouvrier3078]

Mr Ariely, have you thought of shaving both sides of your face. I actually think it looks quite good.

[@mmraike]

Ha ha! Many artists on their deathbeds probably *would* wish they had worked more - or at least would wish that they could work more.

[@commonwunder]

Dan Ariely's own KZbin channel has many recent videos with zero comments. Can you imagine the audacity, the sheer lack of self-awareness... to continue making content? It's the ability to assume peoples attention span is so limited... that they will just forget his own sense of self importance, that his own judgement was more valid and vital, than any scientific validation could ever be. He has proved himself to hold no professional or personal morality.

[@jenniferwang4766]

The narcissism and cognitive dissonance are indeed alarming and …interesting

[@DT4001975]

Comments are being shadowbanned.

[@michelle4688]

Wait… what’s the accusation about this guest? Fraud? What?

[@ssg3219]

The Hartford, an insurance company that collaborated with Ariely on one implicated study, told NPR in a statement that it could confirm that the data it had provided for that study had been altered after they gave it to Ariely, but prior to the research's publication: "It is clear the data was manipulated inappropriately and supplemented by synthesized or fabricated data." Uri Simonsohn described the paper as "Self-evidently faked...I've never seen anything so blatant in my life." Ariely denies that he was responsible for the falsified data. "Getting the data file was the extent of my involvement with the data," he told NPR. However, much of Ariely's work seems to have been falsified. See the article by Gideon Lewis-Kraus published in The New Yorker September 30.

[@michelle4688]

oh interesting. thanks for this.@@ssg3219

[@PhotoTrekr]

Humans be messed up.

[@50-50_Grind]

Very!

[@Everyman777]

They touched upon the question of whether paople are basically good or evil. Peter Singer's Drowning Child analogy in his article 'Famine, Affluence and Morality' in 1972 pretty much nails it. It shows that we are all monsters. It is very hard to see how it can be refuted.

[@Efesus67]

Can't trust Dan much.

[@jdnlaw1974]

I love you, your story and your talent for analysis and writing, but in the past 3-4 weeks I’ve gone from a pro-Israel country boy in Alabama to one who despises your government of Israel. Nothing personal to you or other Jews as individual people in general, I simply despise Netanyahu and the Israeli government.

[@richardouvrier3078]

Shibboleth.

[@bilinguru]

Well if you are willing to give a platform to a fraud, then that makes you a fraud. For shame.

[@Pacer...]

Excellent really like the channel 👍

[@robinblick9375]

Answer? Religion.

[@UrinationNation]

For anyone only familiar with his Ted talks here's a bit more about Dan. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZPTd6h_n52Ghrc

[@MrSoy_]

Materialism is a dogmatic belief

[@SuperHuia]

Enjoyed listening to Dan.

[@yamishogun6501]

Dan Ariely = dishonest

[@MikeoWar]

Great conversation and guest, I thought the part about complex conspiracies was very interesting.

[@zeitmeister]

Dan is very brave to keep practicing curiosity and openness in a world in which daily threats are normal. What an awful experience for one person to have to endure!

[@zeitmeister]

And it would be terrible if comments were to be censored; for instance a triggering word.

[@garyjohnson1466]

Interesting discussion, I’ve always wonder about supposedly rational people believing irrational things, but when you take a in-depth look into their background, how they were raised, their associations, and economic needs, one begins to understand why they often believe irrational things, not to mention their experiences in life, only then do we begin to understand why people believe irrational things and conspiracies, like flat earthers, authoritarians, CEOs and anyone for that matter who often refuses to change regardless of facts and evidence that counters their irrationality beliefs, you can lead someone to water but you can’t them drink if they believe the water has been poisoned, even there’s no evidence to support such beliefs….

[@bustamoveorelse]

Why did you invite this liar on?

[@phukrnd840]

why is being against Israel equated with being antisemitic? ...

[@karagi101]

This is why: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXelnmukhpeUeNEsi=tgmvVvP5DjrEyOXB

[@zeitmeister]

You're seriously puzzled as to why people would be protesting against Israel for reasons other than anti-semitism? Even if you believe that Israel is 100% in the right, you could at least acknowledge that there is a growing perception that the government of Israel is committing numerous war crimes. Do you think that perception is entirely due to ignorance or vapid virtue signaling?

[@gilianrampart8514]

Probably not, but they want you to believe it!

[@Elintasokas]

The real reason is that those people are anti-Western postmodernists. They don't care about anything else than siding with everything that is anti-West and anti-enlightenment. Many of those people were cheering the deaths of those 1400 Israelis on the day of the terrorist attack. They're mostly the same people who have been tirelessly bashing the West, singling it out for slavery and other things (despite slavery having been ubiquitous and the British being the first to abolish it and to even go out of its way to end it globally), tearing down statues, and calling people racists simply for having been born as white. Cheering for Islamic terrorism is just one more outcome of that ideology. They pretend to care about civilians, but at the same time they cheer for the killing of jews or keep quiet. If anythin, they're angry that Israel is now evacuating Gazans to the south because it makes it harder for Hamas to throw civilians in the line of fire and "showing" how the bad West is committing war crimes.

[@petemccutchen3266]

I think the outrage at Israel (as opposed to, say, Syria or China) is due to a combination of Social Justice ideology and antisemitism.

[@samivirtanen4020]

Protesting against Israel is not antisemitism. Stop saying that because it makes one look very ignorant. Please search what the state of Israel does and has been doing in Gaza and in the West Bank, that is why people protest. It has nothing to do with Jews, stop playing to Netanyahus narrative.

[@Resmith18SR]

So that justified Hamas attacking women, children, beheading babies and killing hundreds of innocent civilians? GFYU.

[@JWRB6]

Indeed. Skepticism requires critical thinking, but sadly not much of that being applied here, that opening statement was very disappointing.

[@larsthorwald3338]

Nothing says "questionable sanity' like wearing half a beard. hahaha

[@multitudeofidols]

I assumed - and was confirmed in looking him up - that it's a result of an accident.

[@paulsmashupchannel1442]

What makes rational people believe official narratives with the blind fervor of a lunatic conspiracy theorist?

[@STR82DVD]

I'm going out on a limb here; probably the blind fervour part?

[@hjbasson]

Fear

[@gilianrampart8514]

​@@STR82DVDthe limb broke.

[@gilianrampart8514]

The need for acceptance

[@STR82DVD]

@@gilianrampart8514 That's probably the most accurate rational yet. 😉👍

[@scotthullinger4684]

Truly rational people DO NOT believe irrational things. And if they did, then they of course wouldn't be rational. It makes about as much sense as calling a Democrat a wise sensible smart citizen. And we can see the results of it.

[@science212]

Behavioral economics is a false subject.

[@sibanought]

You need to take down the spam thread with OP @kellyconnor.

[@sibanought]

I can only conclude that either you don't bother to look at the comments on your videos, or, you're the sort of person who if someone did a shit on your living room floor you'd just leave it there instead of cleaning it up. Unsubscribed.

[@VaughanMcCue]

I think it stopped using drugs but only trades in them.

[@sibanought]

@@VaughanMcCue I'm not talking about the OP's comment. I'm talking about the string of spam advertising comments that follow it.

[@VaughanMcCue]

@@sibanought Jesus! I just saw the garbage you are talking about. Pathetic how some peeps will get sucked in. Best wishes.

[@sibanought]

@@VaughanMcCue Thanks, and best wishes to you too. And I agree with what you said about Kelly Connor; born-again christian ex-junkies always seem to secretly be doing dodgy shit.