Author Guide · Behavioral economics
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At seventeen, Dan Ariely was burned over 70 percent of his body, and for months the nurses ripped his bandages off as fast as they could, because they believed fast hurt less. Years later he tested it and found they were wrong: slow, with breaks, hurts less. That gap between what feels sensible and what actually works became his career, and Predictably Irrational made it a bestseller. It is also why the questions about his own data, raised since 2021, matter on a page like this one; my notes say where.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 books · Psychology · Business · 2008–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Dan Ariely has written seven main books, from Predictably Irrational (2008) to Misbelief (2023), plus one illustrated guide. Start with Predictably Irrational. Two of his research papers have since been retracted, one of them behind an experiment in that book. Below: all seven in order, where to start, and what to know about the criticism.
Where to Start with Dan Ariely
If you have never read him
→ Predictably Irrational. The breakout book, and still the clearest version of his argument.
If you want the more personal Ariely
→ The Upside of Irrationality. Grief, revenge, dating and his own recovery from his burns.
If you want to understand cheating
→ The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. Read it with my note on the retracted study in mind.
If your goal is spending money better
→ Dollars and Sense. The most practical of his books.
If you want his newest book
→ Misbelief. How reasonable people slide into believing unreasonable things.
All 7 Dan Ariely Books, in Order
Predictably Irrational
Start hereThe Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
The book that made Ariely’s name, built almost entirely out of small, elegant experiments: on pricing, on placebo effects, on why a “free” option distorts a decision out of all proportion to its actual value, and on why we keep putting things off even when we know better. Each chapter lands a genuine “wait, that’s me” moment. A revised and expanded edition followed in 2009.
This is still the right place to start, and it holds up better than most 2008-era pop-science because it never over-claims: he’s careful to argue irrationality is systematic, not stupidity. The weakest chapters are the ones that feel most like TED-talk filler; the strongest ones I still think about years later. One caveat from 2026: the classroom deadline experiment in the chapter on procrastination comes from a 2002 paper that was retracted after serious anomalies were found in its data.
— LisanneThe Upside of Irrationality
The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
The sequel moves from workplace motivation and revenge to grief, adaptation and online dating, a wider and more personal range of subjects than the first book covered. Several chapters draw on his own long recovery from severe burns as a teenager, which gives it a warmth the first book doesn’t have.
Honestly the more emotionally interesting of the two, though less tightly structured: it reads more like a collection of research he found interesting than a single argument. Satisfying, but looser than Predictably Irrational.
— LisanneThe Honest Truth About Dishonesty
Read with cautionHow We Lie to Everyone, Especially Ourselves
Argues that almost everyone cheats a little, and that the size of a temptation matters less than how easily we can rationalize it to ourselves. Ariely builds the case from experiments with matrices, small payments and self-reported scores, and from the idea of a “fudge factor”: the amount of cheating we allow ourselves while still feeling like good people.
The core argument is genuinely useful and still gets cited constantly, but I’ll say directly what most write-ups of this book skip: a 2012 field study on honesty pledges that Ariely co-authored, from exactly this line of research, was retracted in 2021 after its data were found to be fabricated. According to Ariely, a Duke review that ended in 2024 found that he had not knowingly used falsified data. That doesn’t erase the book’s central insight, which rests on a much wider body of research than his alone, but it’s worth knowing before taking every study inside it at face value.
— LisanneIrrationally Yours
On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles
A collection of his “Ask Ariely” advice column from The Wall Street Journal, answering reader questions about money, dating, work and family through a behavioral-economics lens, with cartoons by William Haefeli.
The lightest thing he’s written: fun in short bursts, forgettable as a whole. Good for a nightstand book, not a priority if you’ve already read the three above it.
— LisannePayoff
The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations
A short TED Books title on motivation: why meaning moves people more than money, why the work we build ourselves feels more valuable to us, and why badly designed incentive schemes backfire.
Essentially a long essay rather than a full book, and it reads that way. Useful if you want the core idea in an hour; skippable once you’ve absorbed his other work.
— LisanneDollars and Sense
How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter
Written with the comedian and writer Jeff Kreisler, this applies Ariely’s framework specifically to money: why paying by card hurts less than paying in cash, why “relative” pricing tricks us on big purchases, and why we trust a price more when it looks like effort went into it.
The most practically useful of his lighter books if your actual goal is spending less irrationally, though it repeats a fair amount of ground already covered in the earlier titles.
— LisanneMisbelief
Most recentWhat Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things
Explores how ordinary, otherwise reasonable people end up believing conspiracy theories and misinformation, step by step rather than all at once. Ariely wrote it after he himself became a target of pandemic-era conspiracy theories.
His most self-implicated book, and a genuinely strange one to read alongside his own history: some of what made him a conspiracy-theory target was the reproducibility criticism of his earlier research. Read on its own it’s a solid account of misbelief as a process; read in context, it’s someone examining a phenomenon he’d also become a case study in.
— LisanneIn What Order to Read Dan Ariely
Publication order works. Start with Predictably Irrational, then The Upside of Irrationality, then The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. Those three are the core of his work.
The shorter books can wait. Irrationally Yours, Payoff and Dollars and Sense repeat a lot of the same ground; pick the one whose subject you care about.
Read Misbelief last, once you know the story behind the criticism of his research. It reads very differently that way.
If this kind of “why do people actually behave this way” territory interests you, I’ve also written about Jonathan Haidt, and my best psychology books list has more.
His Illustrated Guide
Beside the seven main books, Ariely made one book in comic form:
Amazing Decisions · 2019
An illustrated guide, drawn by Matt Trower, to the difference between social norms and market norms: why paying a friend for dinner goes wrong, and what that means for deals at work.
Bookshop.org and more
The years · 1967–2026
Quick facts about Dan Ariely
- Known for
- Bringing behavioral economics to a mass audience with Predictably Irrational, the argument that our bad decisions are not random but predictable, and later for the questions about the reliability of some of his own research
- 1967
- Born in New York, raised in Israel
- 1984
- Badly burned, aged 17
- 2021
- His 2012 honesty study is retracted
- 2026
- Epstein files; a second retraction
- Education
- BA, Tel Aviv University; PhDs from UNC Chapel Hill (1996) and Duke (1998)
- Career
- MIT from 1998 to 2008, then Duke University
- Founded
- The Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke, since closed
- On screen
- NBC’s The Irrational (2023) was inspired by his first book
The red mark is 2008: Predictably Irrational, the book that made him one of the best-known social scientists in the world.
How Dan Ariely Writes
One small experiment per point. Almost every chapter is built on a study you could picture running yourself: students choosing between chocolates, people paid to solve puzzles, a placebo that works better when it costs more. The experiment is the story, and the conclusion comes last.
The reader is always in the experiment. He writes in the second person and keeps asking what you would have done, so the irrational behavior is never someone else’s. That is why the books feel personal, and why they stick.
That method is also the weak point. Because the books rest so heavily on single studies, including some of his own, a retraction hits harder than it would in a book built on a wider body of evidence. Read the chapters as good questions, and check the newest research before treating any one experiment as settled.
Watch
Dan Ariely on why honest people cheat a little
RSA Animate turned a talk by Ariely into this illustrated explainer on why honest people cheat a little, with the financial crisis as his central example of how a whole system can quietly nudge people into distorted judgment. It covers the ideas in The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.
Frequently asked questions about Dan Ariely’s books
Who is Dan Ariely?
Dan Ariely is an Israeli-American behavioral economist and professor of psychology and behavioral economics, born in New York in 1967 and raised in Israel. He taught at MIT from 1998 to 2008 and then at Duke University, where he founded the Center for Advanced Hindsight. He is best known for Predictably Irrational (2008), the book that brought behavioral economics to a mass audience, and in recent years for questions about the reliability of some of his own research.
What books has Dan Ariely written?
Seven main books: Predictably Irrational (2008), The Upside of Irrationality (2010), The Honest Truth About Dishonesty (2012), Irrationally Yours (2015), Payoff (2016), Dollars and Sense (2017, with Jeff Kreisler) and Misbelief (2023), plus the illustrated Amazing Decisions (2019).
What is Dan Ariely’s most famous book?
Predictably Irrational (2008) is his most famous book and the one that established him as a leading popularizer of behavioral economics.
What order should I read Dan Ariely’s books in?
Publication order works well: start with Predictably Irrational, then The Upside of Irrationality, then The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, before moving on to his shorter, lighter titles. Read Misbelief last, with his own history in mind.
What is behavioral economics, as Dan Ariely explains it?
The study of how people actually make economic decisions, as opposed to how a perfectly rational person would. Ariely’s version, set out in Predictably Irrational, is that our mistakes are not random: we overvalue anything labelled “free”, anchor on the first price we see and put things off in the same ways, again and again, which means those mistakes can be predicted and designed around.
What happened to Dan Ariely’s burns?
In 1984, at 17, he was badly burned in Israel when a magnesium flare exploded while he was preparing for a youth-movement ceremony, leaving third-degree burns over about 70 percent of his body. The long, painful treatment that followed, and his questions about how nurses removed his bandages, led to his first research and to his lifelong interest in why people make the decisions they do.
Has Dan Ariely’s research been retracted?
Yes, twice. In 2021 a 2012 field study on honesty pledges that he co-authored was retracted after its data were found to be fabricated; according to Ariely, a Duke review that ended in 2024 found he had not knowingly used falsified data. In 2026 a 2002 paper on procrastination and deadlines, co-authored with Klaus Wertenbroch, was retracted after the Data Colada researchers found signs the data had been altered; Ariely said the records from more than twenty years ago were no longer enough to answer the questions raised.
Is Dan Ariely connected to Jeffrey Epstein?
Yes. Epstein-related records released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January 2026 showed years of correspondence between them, with Ariely’s name appearing hundreds of times. The documents do not allege any criminal conduct by Ariely. In February 2026 he wrote that his contact with Epstein was infrequent and largely logistical, and that he had no connection with Epstein’s crimes.
What is the Center for Advanced Hindsight?
The research lab Ariely founded and led at Duke University, which studied decision-making, money, health and honesty, and ran experiments with companies and governments. The playful name is a nod to his subject: people are much better at seeing their mistakes after the fact. Duke has since closed the center.
Is the TV series The Irrational based on Dan Ariely?
Yes. The NBC drama The Irrational (2023), starring Jesse L. Martin as a behavioral scientist who solves crimes, was inspired by Predictably Irrational.
Footnotes
- Dan Ariely — Wikipedia
- Dan Ariely — Duke Fuqua School of Business
- Claims swirl around academic Ariely after honesty study found to be dishonest — The Times of Israel
- Duke professor appears prominently in newly released Epstein emails — Poets&Quants, 31 January 2026
- Data Colada accuses Duke’s Dan Ariely of tampering with data in a second study — Poets&Quants, 2 September 2026
- Epstein-linked professor under scrutiny as research data raises red flags — Newsweek
Bibliography last verified 7 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“We are pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend.”
— Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational (2008)
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