Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations

by Dan Ariely

Overview

Bestselling author Dan Ariely reveals fascinating new insights into motivation—showing that the subject is far more complex than we ever imagined.

Every day we work hard to motivate ourselves, the people we live with, the people who work for and do business with us. In this way, much of what we do can be defined as being “motivators.” From the boardroom to the living room, our role as motivators is complex, and the more we try to motivate partners and children, friends and coworkers, the clearer it becomes that the story of motivation is far more intricate and fascinating than we’ve assumed.

Payoff investigates the true nature of motivation, our partial blindness to the way it works, and how we can bridge this gap. With studies that range from Intel to a kindergarten classroom, Ariely digs deep to find the root of motivation—how it works and how we can use this knowledge to approach important choices in our own lives. Along the way, he explores intriguing questions such as: Can giving employees bonuses harm productivity? Why is trust so crucial for successful motivation? What are our misconceptions about how to value our work? How does your sense of your mortality impact your motivation?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501120046
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/ TED
Publication date:	11/15/2016
Series:	TED Books
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	541,222
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. He is the author of Payoff and the New York Times bestsellers Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.

Read an Excerpt

Payoff

Editorial Reviews

2016-09-22
The latest in the TED series: a quirky exploration of the mysteries behind human motivation, in business and relationships.Ariely (Psychology and Behavioral Economics/Duke Univ.; The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to EveryoneEspecially Ourselves, 2012, etc.) was always fascinated with why we pursue goals, whether for financial remuneration or personal satisfaction. We are the CEOs of our own lives.Whatever our official job descriptions, we are all part-time motivators, writes the author, whose interest in such issues stems from tragedy: badly burned in an accident when he was young, hes since wondered why some are more driven to rise above such circumstances. He recalls that the devastating role that helplessness played in my own experiencemade me more deeply appreciate the challenges of being badly injured, the complexity of recovery, and the ways that my experience had deeply changed me. Today, Ariely documents psychological experiments performed at tech companies and universities, convincing him that humans incentivize themselves and others in consistent yet enigmatic ways. He argues that workplace initiativese.g., restrictions regarding employee cubiclescrush our natural motivation. Yet financial compensation is far from an automatic cure-all; though almost all companies use some kind of bonuslittle is known about how effective bonuses really are. At a semiconductor factory, Ariely found a promised voucher for a pizza or praise from a supervisor provoked productivity more reliably than extra money. In nonoccupational contexts, he notes, we have a deep attachment to our own ideas, explaining the satisfaction found in creative pursuits. We are even motivated to control our destinies after deathsee: the mummified nobility of China or Egypt. Ariely writes in an approachable, chipper style, but some readers may find his ambiguous findings unsatisfying, as when he writes, it is impossible to come up with one simple set of motivational rules. A mostly provocative account of how inner turmoil drives us.

Kirkus Reviews