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| Daniel Ariely | |
|---|---|
| Name | Daniel Ariely |
| Birth date | 1967 |
| Birth place | New York City, United States |
| Nationality | Israeli–American |
| Alma mater | Tel Aviv University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupation | Professor, author, behavioral economist |
| Known for | Research in behavioral economics, irrationality, decision-making |
Daniel Ariely is an Israeli–American behavioral economist, professor, and author known for empirical and experimental studies of human decision-making, irrationality, and the psychology of incentives. He has held academic positions and directed research centers, published widely cited books and articles, and contributed to public policy, business, and media discussions involving cognitive biases and motivation. His work bridges experimental methods used by Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman, and Herbert Simon with applications in marketing, public policy, and health care.
Ariely was born in New York City and raised in Israel, where formative experiences influenced his interest in behavior and decision-making alongside figures such as Sigmund Freud in popular discourse. He completed a bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University and sustained serious injuries in a near-fatal accident that led him to study neuroscience and cognitive psychology during recovery, topics linked in scholarship to Oliver Sacks and Roger Sperry. He earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral economics at MIT-affiliated groups connected to scholars like Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.
Ariely has held professorships at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management as a visiting researcher, collaborating with faculty including Nassim Nicholas Taleb, George Loewenstein, and Robert Shiller. He served as founder and director of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, conducting experimental work akin to programs at Harvard University and Stanford University. His affiliations have included membership in networks linked to National Bureau of Economic Research and contributions to initiatives at Behavioral Insights Team and policy forums like those convened by the World Economic Forum and OECD.
Ariely's research focuses on systematic deviations from rational choice theory identified by scholars such as John von Neumann, Leonard Savage, and Herbert Simon. He conducted laboratory and field experiments exploring dishonesty, procrastination, the effects of pricing on perceived value, and the psychology of pain and pleasure—topics related to work by Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Elliot Aronson. His studies on dishonesty intersect with findings by Dan Ariely-contemporary researchers like Hersh Shefrin and Colin Camerer; his work on pricing and expectation relates to Philip Kotler and Richard Thaler's perspectives. Experimental designs employed in his papers parallel methods used by Milton Friedman-influenced economists and behavioral experimentalists such as Vernon Smith.
He has published influential articles in journals with editorial overlap with editors from American Economic Review, Psychological Science, and Journal of Political Economy, reporting findings about the endowment effect, placebo effects in consumers, and the impact of social norms versus market norms—concepts debated by Amartya Sen, Gary Becker, and Edward C. Prescott. His field experiments have been applied to programs at Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and World Bank projects, echoing translational approaches seen in collaborations between E. O. Wilson-inspired interdisciplinary teams.
Ariely is the author of several popular books that brought behavioral economics to broad audiences, in line with outreach by Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, and Yuval Noah Harari. His titles include explorations of irrationality, decision-making, and everyday judgment comparable to works by Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler. He has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters alongside contributors in volumes edited by John H. Kagel and Alvin Roth. Ariely has appeared on media platforms such as TED Conferences, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and programs featuring guests like Oprah Winfrey and Charlie Rose, presenting experimental findings to practitioners in business and policy.
Ariely's recognitions include fellowships and awards tied to institutions like American Psychological Association, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, National Science Foundation, and honors akin to prizes awarded by Royal Society-partner foundations. He has been named among influential thinkers in lists produced by Time (magazine), Forbes, and has received honorary appointments at universities such as Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and guest professorships similar to positions held by Paul Krugman and Robert Putnam.
Ariely has engaged in philanthropic and advisory roles for organizations working on health, education, and behavioral interventions, collaborating with nonprofits and foundations like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton Foundation, and development groups including UNICEF and United Nations Development Programme. He has lectured for audiences at Harvard Kennedy School, Princeton University, Columbia University, and private sector clients including IDEO and McKinsey & Company. Personal interests reported in profiles connect him to cultural institutions such as Tel Aviv Museum of Art and public outreach efforts similar to those by The Economist and Financial Times.
Category:Behavioral economists Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States