Top all-time · #865
Dan Ariely
Personal blog · danariely.comeconomicsscience
Dan Ariely's personal blog at danariely.com covers economics and science. Since 2010, 76 different Hacker News readers have linked it 96 times, most often “Understanding Ego Depletion”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-16, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 38 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Dan Ariely's blog for behavioral economics posts on pricing, defaults, free items, and social versus market norms, often citing his research and book Predictably Irrational.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Blog recommended outright; ego depletion post called 'much better', social vs market norms post 'a good overview'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 38 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Understanding Ego Depletion4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2012-08-23
- /4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-02-04
- /2010/09/30/wealth-inequality/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-08-13
- Dan Ariely: "Why is the price anchor for apps so low?"3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-12-25
- Dan Ariely: The Significant Objects Project3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-08-25
- How Morgan Stanley makes money on the Facebook IPO2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-16
- Locksmith gets less tips and more price complaints for being faster2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-12-15
- A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-17
- A gentler and more logical economics2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-01-10
- Taxes and Cheating2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-04-10
What Hacker News says?
An important thing to keep in mind is that #1 here is the state of the affairs after the fact, i.e., when people can see many games that are apparently free built using the IAP concept. Dan Ariely noted that the mobile app industry has done this to itself by ... well better read in his own words: http://danariely.com/2011/12/25/the-oatmeal-this-is-how-i-fe...
Comment linking /2011/12/25/the-oatmeal-this-is-how-i-feel-about-buying-apps/
on “How in-app purchases have destroyed the game industry”Submitted Locksmith gets less tips and more price complaints for being faster as a story · 219 points
HN discussionThat’s related to the concept expressed by behavioural economist, Dan Ariely: “consumers don’t value goods and services solely by their utility, … but also a sense of fairness relating to how much effort was exerted” [1]. In that quote, I’d probably qualify the word effort as “perceived effort”. http://danariely.com/2010/12/15/locksmiths/
Comment linking /2010/12/15/locksmiths/
on “It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code (2015)”Submitted Understanding Ego Depletion as a story · 155 points
HN discussionRelated hack: When you can't make progress and choose between two comparable options, Dan Ariely (behavioral economist) recommends you flip a coin. As you flip it, the impact of a potential decision might prompt you to realize the outcome you truly want. However, there is a caveat: "The coin trick is indeed only useful for cases where the two options are of the same type (two cameras, two movies, etc). In your examp…
Comment linking /2013/01/05/ask-ariely-on-stretching-time-coining-decisions-and-gifts-of-effort-not-money/
on “The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas”Submitted The 7 Habits Of Highly Ineffective People as a story · 74 points
HN discussionObama makes the right call on the suits. Here's Dan Ariely on "ego depletion": http://danariely.com/2012/08/15/understanding-ego-depletion/
Comment linking /2012/08/15/understanding-ego-depletion/
on “Avoiding Burnout”Submitted Dan Ariely: The Significant Objects Project as a story · 36 points
HN discussionI used to develop apps for Dan Ariely and we would often chat about this topic. By the latest in psychological research it's less rational than that [1]. Additional factors: Mental Binning— when we think about buying a $1 app, it doesn’t occur to us to ask ourselves what the pleasure that we are likely to get from this $1 app — or even what is the relative pleasure that we are likely to get from this app compared wi…
Comment linking /2011/12/25/the-oatmeal-this-is-how-i-feel-about-buying-apps/
on “Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy”Submitted How to stop illegal downloads as a story · 31 points
HN discussionDan Ariely has written about research around this topic: http://danariely.com/2009/08/05/the-trouble-with-cold-hard-c...
Comment linking /2009/08/05/the-trouble-with-cold-hard-cash/
on “I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks”Submitted Thoughts on Lance Armstrong [video] as a story · 20 points
HN discussion> They are not (usually) psychopaths, they have feelings and empathy, but are just very good at rationalizing those feelings away. I'm really glad you made this point, and I'll add that we have to remember that most people can be induced to make callous decisions with the wrong incentive structures and the right pressures from their management. In some environments, behavior we might deem callous is merely instituti…
Comment linking /tag/the-honest-truth-about-dishonesty/
on “Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B”Submitted The Rationality of One Star Reviews as a story · 18 points
HN discussionIt is pretty simple if you watch or read Dan Ariely: http://danariely.com/2011/10/06/upside-of-irrationality-chap... It is a known problem in behavioral economics called the identifiable victim effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifiable_victim_effect Basically "Vivid, flesh and blood-victims are often more powerful sources of persuasion than abstract statistic". Most people love Lions and think they are awes…
Comment linking /2011/10/06/upside-of-irrationality-chapter-9/
on “In Zimbabwe, We Don’t Cry for Lions”Submitted Dan Ariely: "Why is the price anchor for apps so low?" as a story · 16 points
HN discussion• Software Engineering Radio - http://www.se-radio.net/ • Hansel Minutes - http://hanselminutes.com/ • Architectural Concepts - http://www.architecturecast.net/ • Security Now - https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm • Arming the Donkeys - http://danariely.com/tag/arming-the-donkeys/ • Freakonomics - http://freakonomics.com/category/freakonomics-radio/podcasts... • Planet Money - http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/12741372…
Comment linking /tag/arming-the-donkeys/
on “Ask HN: Favorite podcasts?”Submitted The Significant Objects Project as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI think if you ask most people battling health issues or have eating problems whether they could force their future selves for the next month to be not allowed to order dessert, they would choose to. They wouldn't trust themselves in the heat of the moment. There's a fundamental disconnect we have between our short term and long term interests, and it manifests in all kinds of problems people end up with, including…
Comment linking /2012/08/15/understanding-ego-depletion/
on “Apple begins rejecting apps that offer rewards for video views, social sharing”Submitted Disclosure? Not Good Enough. as a story · 10 points
HN discussion"It's not a gender thing, it's an effort thing." Then why are there vast asymmetries along gender lines in virtually all aspects of dating? Look at OkTrends ( http://blog.okcupid.com ), or Dan Ariely's posts on the subject ( http://danariely.com/tag/dating/ ), or this post from a woman http://www.alternet.org/why-online-dating-sucks-men ) which indicates high dating success for women putting in low effort. Are men a…
Comment linking /tag/dating/
on “Why women lose the dating game”Submitted A gentler and more logical economics as a story · 8 points
HN discussionThis is a type of discussion that comes up often. There are some very important things to consider to avoid causing unintentional harm. First, understand the difference between social norms and market norms (I like this overview: http://danariely.com/the-books/excerpted-from-chapter-4-%E2%... ) and how the introduction of market norms crowd out social norms (this is a good overview: https://natewkratzer.wordpress.co…
Comment linking /the-books/excerpted-from-chapter-4-%E2%80%93-the-cost-of-social-norms/
on “Open-source infrastructure is not venture-backable”Submitted How Morgan Stanley makes money on the Facebook IPO as a story · 7 points
HN discussionAnyone interested in relative ratings should look at Dan Areily's[1] Predictably Irrational. He is an economist who writes about behavioral economics and decision making. I've often thought about some start-up ideas around relative ratings, and this book was the reason [1] - http://danariely.com/
Comment linking /
on “Why Ratings Systems Don't Work”Submitted Can beggars be choosers? as a story · 7 points
HN discussionDan Ariely talks quite well about the subject of social norms vs financial norms and how just assuming you can move an activity from one to the other is very ignorant. http://danariely.com/the-books/excerpted-from-chapter-4-%E2%... If some "pay for open source work" scheme got github level popular it would completely destroy open source for a long time. Right now there is more work being done than the community coul…
Comment linking /the-books/excerpted-from-chapter-4-%E2%80%93-the-cost-of-social-norms/
on “The Future of Payments and Open Source Support”Submitted Show HN: Pocket Ariely – make sense of life with Dan Ariely’s newest app as a story · 5 points
HN discussionRight. opt-out vs opt-in. http://danariely.com/2008/05/05/3-main-lessons-of-psychology PS. Kindly explain why Google Maps really wants to stalk my location even when not using it actively. It's been forced down Android users a few years ago via a "Yes/Not now" dark pattern, it's coming on iPhone under the guise of "share location with your friends". PS2. Kindly explain why anyone would ever trust Google to not expan…
Comment linking /2008/05/05/3-main-lessons-of-psychology
on “Google in, Google out”Submitted Plagiarism and essay mills as a story · 5 points
HN discussion
