1. What do you take to be Ariely's reason for writing the essay? Is he merely reporting the results of his research or does he have another PURPOSE in mind?
Ariely's reason for writing this essay is to give an idea of how dishonesty the society is and to give a general idea on how people cheat in many circumstances. Yes, Ariely is just merely reporting the results of his research but he also has a purpose in his mind, that is to motivate students on not to lie in a given task at the University of California.
3. Under what circumstances are people more likely to lie? List at least three of the factors Ariely cites.
Ariely mentions that people tend to lie when they want glory and money, they want to view themselves as honorable or honest people, they notice mentally difficult tasks, and think that cheating would benefit the teammates in a group version.
5. What is Ariely's THESIS? Does he state it anywhere or is it implied?
Ariely's thesis is stated. Ariely uses the "Matrix" task using different variation to find out how many people (especially college students) cheat or lie on …show more content…
For whom does Ariely seem to be writing? Cheaters and Liars, their victims, other researchers, insurance, administration, bankers, the IRS, his study participants, another group? How can you tell?
Ariely seems to be writing the essay for the victims of cheater's. The author makes use of negative connotation to show that people started to lie which resulted in the loss of "hundred dollars to the big cheaters", on the other hand, he used the words "we lost thousands and thousands of dollars to them" show that Ariely and his colleagues have lost most of the money to cheaters who cheated "just a little" because there were many of them. (Ariely)
2. The BODY of "Why we Lie" has three fairly distinct sections-paragraph 4-9, 10-14, and 15-21. What is the focus of each section? How does Ariely ensure that his essay has UNITY and