Erez Yoeli is a research scientist at MIT's Sloan School of Management where he directs the Applied Corporations Team. His research focuses on altruism: understanding how it works and how to promote it. He collaborates with governments, nonprofits, and companies to apply the lessons of this research towards addressing real-world challenges like increasing energy conservation, improving antibiotic adherence, reducing smoking in public places, and promoting philanthropy.

Erez also has a popular Ted Talk about how to motivate people to do good for others. His new book Hidden Games: The Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior with co-author Moshe Hoffman is a fun, powerfully insightful book, but also, an eye-opening argument for using game theory to explain all the irrational things we think, feel, and do.

Erez and I discuss:

A brief introduction to Game Theory
His coauthor's remarkable story
Why we crave "saviors"
The importance of reputation in influencing good behavior
How we determine what good behavior is
How is game theory applicable in the political domain?
His TED talk

And so much more...

Erez Yoeli

My Take: We are not as rational as we think we are. It is important to take stock of this fact and question - why do we do certain things? Why do we act in ways that may go against our own self-interest? The path to knowledge is through questioning - and it is imperative to ask the most important question first - why?

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