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: 

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

--

This episode is brought to you by:

Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers!