Dan Ariely speaking at TED, 2009

Dan Ariely (born 1968) is an Israel professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and head of the eRationality research group at the MIT Media Lab.

Biography

Dan Ariely was born in New York while his father was studying for a degree at Columbia University, but grew up in Ramat Gan and Ramat Hasharon, Israel. [1] His mother was a parole officer. [2] As a teenager, he suffered third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body from an accidental magnesium flare explosion.[3]

Ariely was a physics and mathematics major at Tel Aviv University, but transferred to philosophy when he found the writing involved too physically taxing.[4] He also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in business from Duke University.

Ariely is married and has two children.[5]

Academic career

He was formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management. Although he is a professor of marketing with no training in economics, he is considered to be one of the leading behavioral economists. Ariely is the author of the book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, which was published on February 19, 2008 by HarperCollins. When asked whether reading Predictably Irrational and understanding one's irrational behaviors could make a person's life worse (such as by defeating the benefits of a placebo), Ariely responded that there could be a short term cost, but that there would also likely be longterm benefits, and that reading his book would not make a person worse off.[6]

Published works

References

  1. ^ From Crisis to Couch, Haaretz
  2. ^ From Crisis to Couch, Haaretz
  3. ^ Author Dan Ariely puts rationality to the test - The Boston Globe
  4. ^ From Crisis to Couch, Haaretz
  5. ^ From Crisis to Couch, Haaretz
  6. ^ "Predictably Irrational Is an Irresistible Look at Our Not-So-Rational Foibles" Derek Tokaz, The Commentator, Feb. 28, 2008, http://www.law.nyu.edu/studentorgs/commentator/past_issues/commentator_20080228.pdf
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