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Uri Gneezy – Can economics help us understand human motivation? By asking the right questions, and running the right experiments, can we finally understand why we do what we do? Apparently our guest this week believes so, and he’s put together a pretty rock solid argument supporting his case. Uri Gneezy is the Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Behavioral Economics and Professor of Economics & Strategy at the Rady School of Management, UC San Diego. He is also the author of the book, The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. In this episode we talk with Uri about the truth behind many of our decisions and how we can prove this through experimentation.

“I’m most interested in finding where the assumptions of economists breaks.”

– Uri Gneezy

Quotes from Uri: 

[shadowbox]”Companies should use much more behavioral economics in what they’re doing.  Don’t just guess, don’t trust your intuition too much because very often you’re going to be wrong.”

“We care about things that are not relevant. For example, if we work in the same place, I don’t want to make less than you do. And I care much more about that then how much I make.”

“Paying people for what they do often changes the meaning of it.  Often times it can backfire and make them want to do that less often.”

“When you simplify assumptions, you are very often wrong.”[/shadowbox]

What we learn in this episode:

• What does behavioral economics show us about our motivations?
• What is the science behind the “pay as you go” model?
• The reason behind the infamous head butt by soccer player Zinedine Zidane

Resources:

The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life

Materazzi effect and the strategic use of anger in competitive interactions

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