Dan Ariely: Beware conflicts of interest

http://www.ted.com In this short talk, psychologist Dan Ariely tells two personal stories that explore scientific conflict of interest: How the pursuit of knowledge and insight can be affected, consciously or not, by shortsighted personal goals. When we're thinking about the big questions, he reminds us, let's be aware of our all-too-human brains.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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[Javier Ortega]

Okay, awesome video

I want to to get this to top Comments so please like it...

TED, YOU SHOULD LOWER THE VOLUME OF YOUR INTROS.

Lets try and make a change here

[RoGeorgeRoGeorge]

The mind tend to see what it SUPPOSED to be seen, not the reality.

This is a very deep truth. When I discovered it I thought I was the first. Then I found out this is not new and it's a very old peace of wisdom.

Ex: "The assumption is the mother of all fuck ups!"

:o)

[Slap Stick]

This is where it gets all insane. I care that you care that the intro is too loud. It bothers me that it bothers others. Cuz it doesn't bother me. Huh? In both cases, yours and mine, it is insane!! So do me a favor, and don't let it bother you, so your thumbs ups won't bother me. Neeeeeeeaaaaaaah! There...was that too loud?

[Fangscream]

That's not why I clicked on the thumbs up button. I completely agreed, I am not brainless. Though I will agree that I've pondered this effect before, the effect of seeing a large amount of thumbs-ups, wondering if people will just blindly click it without really agreeing. But that doesn't happen, at least not in such a MASSIVE amount, in non-trivial cases (meaning it might, but near negligibly). Plus, you have to think of how that sort of comment gets any thumbs-ups at all, in the beginning.

[Slap Stick]

"On the bandwagon of doing nothing." Thats like saying people are jumping on the bandwagon of not dingleberry collecting. There was no such wagon. There is no problem with the intro. In fact it is a sign of attention deficit disorder or maybe early onset of Alzheimers disease. People are more focused on a totally insignificant aspect of the video. Some are even making a cause out of it revealing some sort of obsessive compulsive makeup. Its quite easy to ignore the intro if it bugs you.

[acommunityofhermits]

In the same way people are jumping on the bandwagon to agree, might they previously have been on the bandwagon of doing nothing? People don't hear others complaining and think it's just them, and say nothing.

Take some advice from Dan and back your words up with data before you make broad statements about others' behavior, your intuition may be incorrect.

[Michael Aird]

And outros.

[Retardretroguy]

Here's the problem with Youtube; Too little Dan Ariely

[petepittsburgh]

I clicked like on this comment without even thinking about how loud the intro was. Ariely would probably have something interesting to say about that : )

[Hythloday71]

Great anecdote, great quote/ paraphrase 'there is always somebody trying to tattoo our faces'. Many peoples political opinions are shaded by the vested interest of ego. That is they want the poor and criminally minded to wholly take responsibility as they see their good fortune as 'all' their own doing. Get it? If they admit they were lucky, they scratch their self esteem and might have to concede the argument that people are rarely wholly responsible for their fate and thus need show empathy.