Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things? 

Small Giants Academy is excited to host 'Conversations with Extraordinary People' A webinar series with the worlds most extraordinary and leading thinkers. Together, we will explore the question “How might we reimagine our world to create the conditions for shared thriving for all of humanity and all living things?” 

In this conversation, Small Giants Academy co-founder Danny Almagor will be chatting with internationally renowned professor and author, Dan Ariely. Together they will discuss our belief systems, our relationship with the truth and Dan's new book Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things? 

Meet Dan Ariely

Despite our intentions, why do we so often fail to act in our own best interest? Why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake, only to find ourselves drooling our way into temptation when the dessert tray rolls around? Why do we overvalue things that we’ve worked to put together? What are the forces that influence our behaviour?

Dan Ariely, a professor of Psychology & Behavioural Economics at Duke University, is dedicated to answering these questions and others in order to help people live more sensible – if not rational – lives. His interests span a wide range of behaviours, and his sometimes unusual experiments are consistently interesting, amusing and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom.
Dan has also advised governments in South Africa, the Netherlands, Brazil, United Kingdom, US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Among the projects he has been involved with is how to help those in historically excluded populations stay in school, how to help women in these populations find work, and how to encourage more kids—girls especially—to study computer science. He has also worked on finding ways to
address traffic congestion, reduce government bureaucracy, reducing prostitution, improve trust between government and citizens and increase motivation among principals, teachers, and students.

He is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, co-creator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, Irrationally Yours, Payoff, Dollars and Sense and Amazing Decisions. His latest book Misbelief will be published in September 2023.

Learn more about Dan – www.danariely.com

Meet Danny Almagor

Danny Almagor is co-founder (with his wife Berry) and the Executive Chair of Small Giants. Danny was the inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence at RMIT, the founder and former CEO of Engineers Without Borders Australia and is the co-founder and Chair of the Impact Investment Group, and more recently created Sentient Impact Group. He has founded over a dozen for profit and non profit organisations including The Sociable Weaver, The Impact Club, Beyond Family Office and Beyond Creative. He has served on numerous boards, including many of the Small Giants family of businesses such as Tom Organic, The School of Life, The Cape ecovillage and Pacific Biotechnologies, as well as non-profit boards and advisories boards including the Jewish Museum of Australia, Stand Up, Smiling Mind, The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan. Danny has been recognised through many awards including a Churchill Fellowship, RMIT Alumnus of the Year, EY Social Entrepreneur of the Year, UN PRI Social Investment Pioneer and the Medal of the Order of Australia.

He has studied Aerospace Engineering, Business Administration and outdoor education. He loves to cook, read, rock climb, talk about philosophy, garden, travel and jump on the trampoline with his three kids. He doesn’t like to run marathons, watch horror films, drink beer, spend time on social media, or invest in anything that isn’t impact.

Thank you for supporting Small Giants Academy, a not-for-profit organisation and an ACNC registered charity.