The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you're actually more and more likely to fail.
Dan ArielyThe bad news is that ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of their eyes. Ignoring gets you a whole way out there. The good news is that by simply looking at something that somebody has done, scanning it and saying "Uh huh," that seems to be quite sufficient to dramatically improve people's motivations.
Dan ArielyThere's something about [cyclically] doing something over and over and over that seems to be particularly demotivating.
Dan ArielyTake a brilliant, creative social scientist, without any respect for conventional wisdom and you get Ellen Langer. She is a fantastic storyteller, and Counterclockwise is a fascinating story about the unexpected ways in which our minds and bodies are connected.
Dan Ariely