full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Ariely: Our buggy moral code

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now, how would you test a personal fdgue factor? Initially we said, what can we do to shrink the fudge factor? So, we got people to the lab, and we said, "We have two tsaks for you tdaoy." First, we asked half the people to recall either 10 books they read in high school, or to recall The Ten Commandments, and then we tempted them with cheating. trnus out the people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments — and in our sample nobody could recall all of The Ten Commandments — but those people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments, given the opportunity to cheat, did not cheat at all. It wasn't that the more rliiouges people — the plpeoe who remembered more of the Commandments — cheated less, and the less religious people — the people who couldn't remember almost any ctnnmmmeados — cheated more. The moment people thought about trying to recall The Ten Commandments, they stopped citaehng. In fact, even when we gave self-declared atheists the task of swearing on the Bible and we give them a chance to cheat, they don't cheat at all. Now, Ten Commandments is something that is hard to bring into the education system, so we said, "Why don't we get people to sign the honor code?" So, we got people to sign, "I understand that this srhot survey falls under the MIT Honor Code." Then they shredded it. No cheating whatsoever. And this is particularly iensrnettig, because MIT doesn't have an hnoor code. (lehgutar)

Open Cloze

Now, how would you test a personal _____ factor? Initially we said, what can we do to shrink the fudge factor? So, we got people to the lab, and we said, "We have two _____ for you _____." First, we asked half the people to recall either 10 books they read in high school, or to recall The Ten Commandments, and then we tempted them with cheating. _____ out the people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments — and in our sample nobody could recall all of The Ten Commandments — but those people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments, given the opportunity to cheat, did not cheat at all. It wasn't that the more _________ people — the ______ who remembered more of the Commandments — cheated less, and the less religious people — the people who couldn't remember almost any ____________ — cheated more. The moment people thought about trying to recall The Ten Commandments, they stopped ________. In fact, even when we gave self-declared atheists the task of swearing on the Bible and we give them a chance to cheat, they don't cheat at all. Now, Ten Commandments is something that is hard to bring into the education system, so we said, "Why don't we get people to sign the honor code?" So, we got people to sign, "I understand that this _____ survey falls under the MIT Honor Code." Then they shredded it. No cheating whatsoever. And this is particularly ___________, because MIT doesn't have an _____ code. (________)

Solution

  1. honor
  2. interesting
  3. tasks
  4. cheating
  5. people
  6. turns
  7. commandments
  8. laughter
  9. today
  10. religious
  11. fudge
  12. short

Original Text

Now, how would you test a personal fudge factor? Initially we said, what can we do to shrink the fudge factor? So, we got people to the lab, and we said, "We have two tasks for you today." First, we asked half the people to recall either 10 books they read in high school, or to recall The Ten Commandments, and then we tempted them with cheating. Turns out the people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments — and in our sample nobody could recall all of The Ten Commandments — but those people who tried to recall The Ten Commandments, given the opportunity to cheat, did not cheat at all. It wasn't that the more religious people — the people who remembered more of the Commandments — cheated less, and the less religious people — the people who couldn't remember almost any Commandments — cheated more. The moment people thought about trying to recall The Ten Commandments, they stopped cheating. In fact, even when we gave self-declared atheists the task of swearing on the Bible and we give them a chance to cheat, they don't cheat at all. Now, Ten Commandments is something that is hard to bring into the education system, so we said, "Why don't we get people to sign the honor code?" So, we got people to sign, "I understand that this short survey falls under the MIT Honor Code." Then they shredded it. No cheating whatsoever. And this is particularly interesting, because MIT doesn't have an honor code. (Laughter)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
carnegie mellon 5
ten commandments 4
stock market 3
people shredded 3
acting student 3
grab hold 2
pay people 2
people cheated 2
people cheating 2
feel good 2
personal fudge 2
fudge factor 2
religious people 2
problems give 2
student stood 2
mellon student 2
people cheat 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
carnegie mellon student 2

Important Words

  1. asked
  2. atheists
  3. bible
  4. books
  5. bring
  6. chance
  7. cheat
  8. cheated
  9. cheating
  10. code
  11. commandments
  12. education
  13. fact
  14. factor
  15. falls
  16. fudge
  17. gave
  18. give
  19. hard
  20. high
  21. honor
  22. initially
  23. interesting
  24. lab
  25. laughter
  26. mit
  27. moment
  28. opportunity
  29. people
  30. personal
  31. read
  32. recall
  33. religious
  34. remember
  35. remembered
  36. sample
  37. school
  38. short
  39. shredded
  40. shrink
  41. sign
  42. stopped
  43. survey
  44. swearing
  45. system
  46. task
  47. tasks
  48. tempted
  49. ten
  50. test
  51. thought
  52. today
  53. turns
  54. understand
  55. whatsoever