The Actor

Peter Dinklage plays the closest thing there is to a hero in HBO’s cult hit series A Game of Thrones (for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Emmy and Golden Globe last season). Yet throughout his career he has wrestled with a preconception of what a leading man should be. Duke psychologist and behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s TED talk on irrational behavior has been viewed almost 2 million times. Together actor and psychologist talk about how irrational our perception can be.

About the Speakers

Peter Dinklage is currently starring in HBO’s smash hit event series A Game of Thrones (for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Emmy and Golden Globe last season). How he got there started with his supporting role in Tom DeCillo’s Living In Oblivion, in which he delivered an open rant to an entire generation of would-be filmmakers, refusing to be used as a gag or a prop – while honoring his craft with an unforgettable fierceness and dignity. Peter got his shot at redefining the concept of a leading man with his starring role in the Sundance Audience Award winner The Station Agent, which drewstanding ovations at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and was immediately bought and released by Miramax. After the Dramatic Audience Award, Peter went on to receive the SAG Award Nominee for Best Actor 2004, the Independent Spirit Award Nominee for Best Actor 2004 and was also named one of the top 5 “Breakout Stars” of the year by Entertainment Weekly and prominently featured in People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue. He has been extremely busy ever since. Feature credits include Elf; Human Nature; Penelope, the Chronicles of Narnia franchise; St. John of Las Vegas; Pete Smalls is Dead; Death at a Funeral; Ice Age: Continental Drift, and the soon to be released The Angriest Man in Brooklyn opposite Robin Williams and Mila Kunis. Peter starred in a Lincoln Center production on the life of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec for director Martha Clarke; the title role in The Public Theatre’s critically acclaimed Richard III; andCharlie Kaufman’s Theatre of the New Ear co-starring Meryl Streep and Hope Davis.

Despite our intentions, why do we so often fail to act in our own best interest? Why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake, only to find ourselves drooling our way into temptation when the dessert tray rolls around? Why do we overvalue things that we’ve worked to put together? What are the forces that influence our behavior? Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is dedicated to answering these questions and others in order to help people live more sensible – if not rational – lives. His interests span a wide range of behaviors, and his sometimes unusual experiments are consistently interesting, amusing and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom. In addition to appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the Department of Economics, and the School of Medicine at Duke University, Dan is also a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.

AboutBrainwave: Illusion
The Buddha said that everything is illusion. What did he mean by that? This sixth edition of Brainwave will enlist the aid of neuroscientists to help us understand how the perception of our world is shaped by the surprising adaptability of our brains. Brainwave includes talks, special film screenings followed by discussions, interactive workshops, and much more!
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Peter Dinklage plays the closest thing there is to a hero in HBO’s cult hit series A Game of Thrones yet throughout his career he has wrestled with a preconception of what a leading man should be. Together with Duke psychologist and behavioral economist Dan Ariely they talk about how irrational our perception can be.