In our latest podcast episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Prof. Dan Ariely, a renowned behavioural economist and the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioural Economics at Duke University.

Dan is also the co-founder of several companies, including BeWorks, and the author of eight books, his latest being "MisbeLIEf." This episode dives deep into the fascinating world of behavioural economics, focusing on how misinformation and stress can significantly impact decision-making in both personal and business environments.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Our Guest:

Prof. Dan Ariely - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danariely/

James B Duke Professor of Behavioural Economics at Duke University

• Co-founder of multiple companies including BEWorks - the world’s leading behavioral change firm
• Author of 8 books, including Predictably Irrational and the most recent MisbeLIEf
• TEDTalk Speaker

Our Hosts:

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

• Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/
• Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/

Timestamps:

0:52 - Intro to Dan

3:36 - Behavioural Economics of Choice: The Economist Subscription

7:21 - The human brain is like a swiss army knife

9:30 - The inspiration of MisbeLIEf - COVID & death threats

12:59 - All of us have the potential to become misbelievers

15:15 - Mistrust in businesses & business leaders

16:30 - Stress affects our ability to trust

18:58 - Psychological resilience is affected by social connections

21:06 - Social isolation for employees hired during COVID

21:44 - Treating employees well can improve stock market returns

25:15 - ETF to track holdings based on how employees feel about where they work

25:44 - The trouble with counting the % of women in senior positions

30:38 - Two types of stress, one is harmful

32:33 - Seeing patterns where there are none

34:56 - The 2 components of misbelief

37:10 - Brands & influencers

39:47 - Improving trust on social networks

42:53 - We need to get better at consuming information

44:35 - People come to marketers too late

46:38 - Removing confirmation bias by changing the way we search

47:44 - Flush toilets and learning to understand

51:16 - Rather than argue the facts, accept ambiguity

53:50 - How to change people’s minds

55:05 - Why ostracism is so destructive

56:30 - Learn more about Dan

59:05 - Post-Pod Discussion with Marc and V

Background Research & Literature:

Dan’s Website https://danariely.com/

Links to all his papers, videos etc. https://danariely.com/resources/#v-thoughts-of-the-week

Links to his books https://danariely.com/books/

Center of Advanced Hindsight https://advanced-hindsight.com/

Irrational Capital ETF https://finance.yahoo.com/news/irrational-capitals-hapi-outperforming-p-120000068.html

Center for Advanced Bureaucracy https://centerforbureaucracy.com/

The Life We Should Live https://www.thelifeweshouldlive.com/