Big Think put up a new interview with Dan Ariely on their site:

 

In his most recent Big Think interview, Ariely talks at length about the issues around dating and mating, also telling us about a recent study he did that determined that people find others attractive in part based on how they perceive of their own attractiveness. “If you’re [an unattractive] woman, you start valuing short men who are bald with bad teeth,” says Ariely. “I mean, you just say, ‘These are really wonderful features: I like hairy chests, I like bald head.’ You basically change what you like and that actually helps you adjust.”

Ariely also talked about the “Ikea effect,” whereby we tend to overvalue the things we ourselves make—and we tend to think others will value them highly as well. “You can think about kids like this,” says Ariely. “I have two wonderful kids, I love them dearly, I think they’re amazing. When we go to a party and they dance or do something, I can’t believe that any of their parents would want to do anything but look in my kids, right? And that’s the issue, right? They are my kids, I think they are wonderful, but, not only that, I think that other people should see them as wonderful as I see them. And the same thing happened with origami or with everything we make, not only do we overvalue it, we think that everybody will share our perspective.” (…)

See his older interviews at http://bigthink.com/danariely

Dan Ariely is the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions and is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, where he holds appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the department of Economics.

In addition, Dan is a visiting professor in MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences. He is currently working on a new book titled Dining Without Crumbs: The Art of Eating Over the Sink.

He can also be seen in two TED Talks. One on our buggy moral code (or why we think it’s OK to cheat and steal – sometimes):

And another in which he asks if we really are in control of our own decisions: