Before people read too much into this, just be aware that Ariely has been caught out a number of times falsifying data or even making up entire studies that he

Before people read too much into this, just be aware that Ariely has been caught out a number of times falsifying data or even making up entire studies that he then writes about in publications. Not saying this was the case here, but you'd want to look for corroboration in sources not involving him. TFA mentions a few, but most of it is from Ariely.