Dishonesty is certainly not an asset or trait we would put in a resume, a personality bio, or even tell a friend in order to describe ourselves. What is certain is that we are all dishonest and it is part of our human nature.
Yael Melamede brings to us his documentary "(Dis)honesty: The Truth About Lies," which explores Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics, and colleagues' research on dishonesty. The film focuses on many aspects and factors which influence individuals to lie. To compliment Ariely's research findings on what influences dishonesty, the film draws attention to eight people's stories on lying. From "white lies" to major lies that result in frauds, jail time, and loosing professional careers, these stories make the viewers consider the impact of any minor white lie or major deception.
Both Melamede and Ariely take the position that human beings do not necessarily lie because they are immoral, but rather because we are not always rational. Dan Ariely compares his Behavioral Economics research to that of Standard Economics. Ariely states,
"Behavioral economics challenges many of the assumptions of standard economics. In standard economics we assume that people are perfect decision makers, that we could compare all the options, that we don’t have any limitations of cognitive capacity. Behavioral economics doesn’t make any assumptions...Instead, we see how they [people] behave. And what we see happening in those experiments is that people don’t think long term...We find that people are not able to consider all options...and we find that they don’t always behave in a rational way."
So if lying is natural and everyone lies, what's the big deal anyway? Ariely and colleagues' experiments on deception make evident the factors that influence something called "the fudge factor." Dan Ariely best explains this and states, “As long as we cheat just a little bit, we don’t have to pay any price in terms of the image and way we view ourselves...The ability to misbehave and think of ourselves as good people." Through experiments and personal stories, the film highlights the elements that influence the fudge factors such as conflicts of interest, creativity, everyone's doing it, social norms, etc. Because of these elements we tend to have a reason or justification for lying and since we may have this fudge factor, we may not realize the consequences our lies may hold in the future.
You can watch this thought provoking and insightful documentary on Netflix or buy it online! If you are interested in more of Dan Ariely's research, you can find his TED talks on YouTube or his empirical articles through Google Scholar.
