The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty by Dan Ariely

The good news is that I only recommend Dan Ariely’s new book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves to those of us who lie or cheat. The bad news is that this immoral group includes all of us, yes even you… and your family… and your co-workers… and your elderly neighbors… and your academic instructors, politicians (how shocking!), dentists, doctors… you get the idea.

While Dishonesty will certainly not be considered the “feel good” book of the summer, it represents a very important work in the field of behavioral economics which is the culmination of dozens of experiments and studies that have been performed by the author and his fellow researchers.

For the very few of you who may not be familiar with Ariely, he is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavior Economics at Duke University and the author of two past best sellers; Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality .

In Dishonesty, Ariely answers some very difficult questions such as; why/how do people act dishonestly and how can we prevent these acts. He starts by exploring the Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC) which attempts to explain the how we decide if and when we will act dishonestly. The premise of the book is that many factors and situations need to be taken into account to understand when and why people are dishonest and the bulk of the chapters are dedicated to exploring specific situations.

City of Scoundrels: A Q&A with author Gart Krist

Gary Krist's latest book, City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago, masterfully tells the story of 12 volatile days in the life of Chicago, when an aviation disaster, a race riot, a crippling transit strike, and a sensational child murder roiled a city already on the brink of collapse. Krist is also the author of The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche.

You can learn more about this book by reading my review.

Thanks Gary for taking time from your busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Q: Why did you write City of Scoundrels?

A: I wanted to write about a city under extraordinary stress.  The evolution of any city, particularly a city of immigrants, involves lots of conflict, with various ethnic, racial, and class-based groups competing against each other for power and prominence.  Often, this kind of competition works to the city’s advantage, channeling energies in constructive directions.  But 1919 in Chicago was one of those times when the energies of competition turned destructive, and instead of working to build the city, started tearing it apart.

Q: The book opens with a dramatic recounting of the Wingfoot air express disaster on July 21^st, 1919. I think most readers will be as surprised as I was to learn of this disaster. Why do you think this disaster, the first aviation disaster in American history, is mostly forgotten and what impact did this disaster ultimately have on aviation travel in the beginning of the 20^th century?