The shapeshifting trap
Momentous change, from individual-level decisions to business-level policy making, sometimes doesn’t quite turn out as expected. Why do we never seem to learn?
Psychology
Koenfucius.
Essays on behavioral economics, psychology, and the philosophy of everyday life.
Recent essays
30 of 50Instant judges
We are lightning fast at passing categorical judgement about people, but as the proverb says, haste makes waste… or does it?
A price, just for you
How a jumble sale helps reveal our ambivalence to personalized pricing
The second strongest instinct
Our innate drive to survive is, unquestionably and self-evidently, the strongest of our many instincts. Only one other instinct comes anywhere near
Torn in traffic
Few environments are as illustrative of human behavioural tendencies as the nation’s highways and byways. And some are giving us mixed messages
There is such a thing as a free lunch
A remarkable proportion of what we value is given to us by others – and neither they, nor we, are aware of this
Gamblers up to a point
A simple survey question shows that we are natural gamblers — and that ‘expected value’, the tidy statistical logic economists reach for, has little to do with how we actually decide
The Resonance Premium
We tend to value stuff based on its cost – except when we don’t
Spoiled for choice, spoiled by choice?
Being able to choose is better than having no choice, but a wider choice can lure us into a frustrating trap
The weakness that strengthens our rules
Rules are useful in even the simplest of societies… but what if they go against our interest?
The value of everything
We non-accountants love pointing the finger at accountants for knowing the cost of everything, and the value of nothing. But are we as concerned with value as we think we are?
Why the warm glow needs fuel
Have we humans evolved a ‘noble’ form of motivation that stands apart from a baser, grubbier version?
The dead that barely matter
It is not only the value of a life that is hard to determine – so is the significance of a death: some deaths provoke outrage, while others, just as numerous and preventable, meet with indifference
Limited incentives for unlimited motivation?
Would a world without billionaires really look just like it looks now, only without billionaires?
Zigging to the bottom
How can a free, competitive market collapse into every player offering the same unsatisfactory offer? A story of three proverbs
Give me strength!
There is a limit to our physical capacity, but how close can we get to it… and how do we tap into our reserves?
The price of a principle
When we make a purchase, we often pay a surcharge for our principles. But how much precisely we are willing to spend on them is a mystery – even to ourselves
The groups we don’t realize we joined
We belong to far more groups than we realize — and we can acquire new ones in an instant. But what is it that activates our group instinct, and why?
Don’t fear the market
Markets are a powerful coordination mechanism. Why do we insist on getting in the way?
A tale of two buttons
A simple binary choice with no right answer reveals something far more interesting than selfishness or virtue
At second sight – when facts deceive
We may say we want the facts, but as soon as we get them, we give them meaning, and promptly treat fact and meaning as one
Paying to be right
How I paid a price for a retailer’s 99p pricing error, and why it was worth it (and not irrational)
Casting judgment
A controversy over a casting decision reveals how we sometimes try to rationalize ideological or identitarian positions, and allow peripheral concerns to eclipse the essence of the matter
Assumptions – our invisible load-bearers
Underneath the usual ingredients of decision making (facts, goals, boundary conditions etc) there is another one, unseen, quietly doing most of the work
The essence of deciding
When all the tricks and tools are stripped away, what do we rely on to make decisions? The decisions surrounding the death of a loved one offer a hint
The exits nobody plans for
Many of our decisions are not intended to stretch indefinitely into the future. Yet they often do. Does that matter?
Why we follow some laws (but not others) without being made to
Laws that are not enforced “have no teeth”, they say – notably, recently, international law. Yet humans learned to cooperate successfully well before there were formal laws. What is going on?
When
Sometimes we change our mind. Sometimes we judge others for doing something we believe they shouldn’t. But without answering one simple question, we simply show we haven’t thought it through
The unlearnable song
My barbershop chorus has been rehearsing the same song for a year – and we still sing wrong notes. That reveals weaknesses in how we make decisions and learn
A reasonable illusion of objectivity
Rules are often invoked as a neutral arbiter in a conflict… as long as they are reasonable. But who decides what is reasonable?