Are you more like Homer Simpson or Spock? Before you answer, see why author Dan Ariely says that irrational behavior can actually be a positive thing, despite the fact that we’ve been taught all our lives to make smart, rational decisions.

Ariely, a professor of “behavioral economics” and the author of “The Upside of Irrationality,” says that some of the nicest things we do, from returning favors to financial choices and more, only work because we act against the more rational instinct.

He shares some of the ways that he helps people challenge their beliefs and grow to be better, happier people. Plus, learn how the concept of revenge factors into his theories and how his own terrible experience being burned by military bomb helped shape the rest of his life.