Beware conflicts of interest | Dan Ariely

Translator: Nuria Estrada Reviewer: Jordi Niñerola

So, I was in the hospital for a long time.

Vaig estar a l'hospital durant molt temps.

And a few years after I left, I went back,

I uns anys després hi vaig tornar,

and the chairman of the burn department was very excited to see me --

i el cap del departament de cremats va estar molt content de veure'm.

said, "Dan, I have a fantastic new treatment for you."

Em va dir: "Dan, tinc un tractament nou fantàstic per a tu."

I was very excited. I walked with him to his office.

Vaig estar molt content. Vam anar al seu despatx.

And he explained to me that, when I shave,

I em va explicar que, quan m'afaito,

I have little black dots on the left side of my face where the hair is,

tinc uns puntets negres a la part esquerra de la cara on hi ha pèl,

but on the right side of my face

però a la part dreta de la cara

I was badly burned so I have no hair,

on m'havia cremat no hi tinc pèl,

and this creates lack of symmetry.

i això crea una falta de simetria.

And what's the brilliant idea he had?

I quina era la idea brillant que va tenir?

He was going to tattoo little black dots

Volia tatuar-me uns puntets negres

on the right side of my face

a la part dreta

and make me look very symmetric.

i fer que semblés més simètric.

It sounded interesting. He asked me to go and shave.

Semblava interessant. Em va demanar que m'afaités.

Let me tell you, this was a strange way to shave,

Penseu que era un afaitat extrany,

because I thought about it

perquè hi vaig pensar

and I realized that the way I was shaving then

i tal com m'afaités llavors

would be the way I would shave for the rest of my life --

seria com m'hauria d'afaitar la resta de la vida

because I had to keep the width the same.

perquè havia de mantenir el nivell.

When I got back to his office,

Quan vaig tornar al seu despatx,

I wasn't really sure.

no ho tenia clar.

I said, "Can I see some evidence for this?"

Vaig dir: "Puc veure'n cap mostra?"

So he showed me some pictures

Em va ensenyar unes fotos

of little cheeks with little black dots --

de galtetes amb puntets negres,

not very informative.

no gaire útil.

I said, "What happens when I grow older and my hair becomes white?

Li vaig dir: "I què passa quan sigui gran i tingui el pèl blanc?

What would happen then?"

Llavors què passa?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," he said.

" No et preocupis", em va dir.

"We have lasers; we can whiten it out."

"Tenim làsers i ho podem enblanquir."

But I was still concerned,

Però encara estava preocupat,

so I said, "You know what, I'm not going to do it."

i vaig dir: "Saps què? No m'ho faré"

And then came one of the biggest guilt trips of my life.

I llavors em va fer sentir molt culpable.

This is coming from a Jewish guy, all right, so that means a lot.

Us ho diu un jueu; això vol dir molt.

(Laughter)

(Riures)

And he said, "Dan, what's wrong with you?

I em va dir: "Dan, quin problema tens?

Do you enjoy looking non-symmetric?

T'agrada ser asimètric?

Do you have some kind of perverted pleasure from this?

És per algun plaer morbós?

Do women feel pity for you

Les dones senten llàstima per tu

and have sex with you more frequently?"

i se'n van al llit més fàcilment?"

None of those happened.

Res d'això em passava.

And this was very surprising to me,

I allò em va sorprendre molt,

because I've gone through many treatments --

perquè he rebut molts tractaments,

there were many treatments I decided not to do --

molts d'altres que vaig decidir no fer,

and I never got this guilt trip to this extent.

i mai em fan fer sentir així de culpable.

But I decided not to have this treatment.

Però vaig decidir no fer-me aquest tractament.

And I went to his deputy and asked him, "What was going on?

I vaig preguntar al seu ajudant: "Què passa?

Where was this guilt trip coming from?"

Per què m'ha fet sentir culpable?"

And he explained that they have done this procedure on two patients already,

Em va explicar que ja havien fet aquest procediment a dos pacients

and they need the third patient for a paper they were writing.

i necessitaven el 3r per a escriure un article.

(Laughter)

(Riures)

Now you probably think that this guy's a schmuck.

Si penseu que ell era un idiota,

Right, that's what he seems like.

bé, és el que sembla.

But let me give you a different perspective on the same story.

Però deixeu que us mostri una altra perspectiva de la història.

A few years ago, I was running some of my own experiments in the lab.

Fa uns anys, feia uns experiments al laboratori.

And when we run experiments,

I quan fem experiments,

we usually hope that one group will behave differently than another.

esperem que un grup es comporti diferent que l'altre.

So we had one group that I hoped their performance would be very high,

Teníem un grup que esperàvem que rendís molt

another group that I thought their performance would be very low,

i un altre grup que crèiem que rendiria molt poc,

and when I got the results, that's what we got --

i quan vaig tenir els resultats, ho vaig confirmar

I was very happy -- aside from one person.

—estava molt content— excepte per una persona.

There was one person in the group

Hi havia una persona al grup

that was supposed to have very high performance

que suposava que rendiria molt

that was actually performing terribly.

i que ho feia molt malament.

And he pulled the whole mean down,

I m'empenyia la mitjana cap avall,

destroying my statistical significance of the test.

i destruïa la significació estadística de la prova.

So I looked carefully at this guy.

Així que em vaig fixar bé en aquell home.

He was 20-some years older than anybody else in the sample.

Tenia uns 20 anys més que les altres persones de la mostra.

And I remembered that the old and drunken guy

I vaig recordar un vell begut

came one day to the lab

que va venir un dia

wanting to make some easy cash

a guanyar uns diners fàcils

and this was the guy.

i era aquell home.

"Fantastic!" I thought. "Let's throw him out.

"Fantastic!", vaig pensar. "Eliminem-lo.

Who would ever include a drunken guy in a sample?"

Qui inclouria un borratxo a la mostra?"

But a couple of days later,

Però al cap d'uns dies,

we thought about it with my students,

vam pensar-ho amb els estudiants,

and we said, "What would have happened if this drunken guy was not in that condition?

i vam dir: "Què hagués passat si el borratxo no hagués begut?

What would have happened if he was in the other group?

I si hagués estat a l'altre grup?

Would we have thrown him out then?"

L'hauríem tret llavors?"

We probably wouldn't have looked at the data at all,

No hauríem revisat les dades,

and if we did look at the data,

i si ho haguéssim fet,

we'd probably have said, "Fantastic! What a smart guy who is performing this low,"

hauríem dit: "Fantàstic! Quin noi tan llest que rendeix tan poc,"

because he would have pulled the mean of the group lower,

perquè hauria abaixat més la mitjana del grup

giving us even stronger statistical results than we could.

i tindríem resultats encara més significatius.

So we decided not to throw the guy out and to rerun the experiment.

I vam decidir no eliminar-lo i repetir l'experiment.

But you know, these stories,

Pero, sabeu, aquestes històries,

i molts altres experiments que hem fet sobre els conflictes d'interessos,

and lots of other experiments that we've done on conflicts of interest,

basically kind of bring two points

bàsicament treuen a la llum

to the foreground for me.

dos punts per a mi.

The first one is that in life we encounter many people

El primer és que a la vida ens trobem molta gent

who, in some way or another,

que, d'una manera o una altra,

try to tattoo our faces.

intenten tatuar-nos la cara.

They just have the incentives that get them to be blinded to reality

Tenen els incentius que els fan cecs a la realitat

and give us advice that is inherently biased.

i ens aconsellen de forma esbiaixada.

And I'm sure that it's something that we all recognize,

I això és quelcom que tots reconeixem,

and we see that it happens.

i veiem que passa.

Maybe we don't recognize it every time,

Potser no ho reconeixem sempre,

but we understand that it happens.

però entenem que passa.

The most difficult thing, of course, is to recognize

El més difícil, és clar, és reconèixer que

that sometimes we too

a vegades nosaltres també

are blinded by our own incentives.

estem cegats pels nostres incentius.

And that's a much, much more difficult lesson to take into account.

I això és molt i molt més difícil d'acceptar.

Because we don't see how conflicts of interest work on us.

Perquè no veiem com els conflictes d'interessos ens afecten.

When I was doing these experiments,

Quan jo feia aquell experiment,

in my mind, I was helping science.

al meu cap, jo ajudava la ciència.

I was eliminating the data

Eliminava unes dades

to get the true pattern of the data to shine through.

per revelar el patró vertader de les dades.

I wasn't doing something bad.

No feia res dolent.

In my mind, I was actually a knight

Al meu cap, jo era un cavaller

trying to help science move along.

intentant ajudar la ciència a avançar.

But this was not the case.

Però no era així.

Estava interferint en el procés amb les bones intencions.

I was actually interfering with the process with lots of good intentions.

And I think the real challenge is to figure out

I penso que el gran repte és adonar-nos

where are the cases in our lives

en quins casos a la vida

where conflicts of interest work on us,

ens afecten els conflictes d'interessos,

and try not to trust our own intuition to overcome it,

i intentar no confiar en la nostra intuició per superar-ho,

but to try to do things

sinó intentar fer quelcom

that prevent us from falling prey to these behaviors,

per evitar de caure-hi

because we can create lots of undesirable circumstances.

perquè podem crear moltes circumstàncies indesitjables.

I do want to leave you with one positive thought.

Us vull deixar amb un pensament positiu.

I mean, this is all very depressing, right --

Tot això és depriment, no?

people have conflicts of interest, we don't see it, and so on.

Tenim conflictes d'interessos, no ho veiem...

The positive perspective, I think, of all of this

La perspectiva positiva

is that, if we do understand when we go wrong,

és que, si entenem quan ens equivoquem,

if we understand the deep mechanisms

si entenem els mecanismes profunds

of why we fail and where we fail,

de per què i on fallem,

we can actually hope to fix things.

podem esperar de canviar-ho.

And that, I think, is the hope. Thank you very much.

I aquesta, crec, és l'esperança. Moltes gràcies.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiments)