Big Think

Question: Who are you?

Dan Ariely: My name is Dan Ariely, and I’m the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT.  As you can clearly tell from my accent I was born in New York City.  And then when I was very young my parents moved to Israel, and I was . . . I lived there until I came here to grad school.  And how it changed my . . . how it shaped my behavior . . . So at that point in Israel when I was growing up, things were very simple, and easy, and flexible.  I grew up in an environment where I could basically almost do anything I wanted, which was great.  The second thing that my mother always had interesting rules and regulations.  So for example I was not allowed to skip classes in school.  But every time I needed a day off I could take a whole day off.  And my mother’s logic was that one hour here and there don’t do much.  But when you need the whole day off that can actually help.

Recorded on: February 19 2008