How incentives influence lives

Talk is cheap. But sometimes, what we say doesn't match what we really intend. Incentives play a central role in influencing behavior. Mixed signals from incentives can achieve the opposite of what they were designed for. At work, leaders can preach innovation but punish failure. We tell our kids to be honest, but lie about their age to get discounts. Uri Gneezy is a behavioral economics professor at the University of California in San Diego who researches incentives and what motivates people. He offers advice about how to incentive smart, in ways that are simple, effective, and ethical in his new book, Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work.