This is the second of two posts on honesty.

Honesty because everyone benefits – honesty as an outcome and means.

Dan Ariely caught my attention with another of his experiments exploring the hidden things at play behind the choices we make.  This time he was seeing if he could influence people to be honest.  The experiment had three groups tackling twenty problems.*  Two of the groups were primed before they began – one would write out ten books the participants had read in school, the others would write out as many of the ten commandments as they could remember.

The results.

The first group which couldn’t cheat because someone else checked their answers solved an average of 3 problems.  The group asked to write down ten book titles submitted their own results, and claimed an average of 5.5 problems solved – they’d cheated.   The group asked to write out commandments submitted their results and claimed an average of 3 problems solved – no cheating.  Ariely then tried it again with an honour code substituting for the ten commandments – the same results: ‘a moral reminder  eliminated cheating altogether.’

This piqued my interest.  Just yesterday, someone who’s been exploring their Strengths** with me shared how a summary of the things which energise her – held on her smartphone – had kept her on track during what could have been a difficult experience.

Then, what if priming ourselves at the beginning of the day – with the things which are important to us – keeps us true and honest to what we really want to do.***  Or, to put it another way, what if these reminders get us into the rhythm of our life and art so we’re not deflected and will not compromise?

As I mentioned in the first of these posts, my interest in honesty is as something which means everyone benefits, including ourselves – being connected with our story and producing the art we love to make.

(*The first would answer questions and have to hand them in for someone else to check, those who wrote out the books or commandments could check submit their own results and tear up their answer sheet.)
(**Strengths are what occur when passions and skills combine.)
(***Journalling, statements and mantras, images, and even physical exercises – imbuing meaning to each movement with words about our art.)