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by
Dan Ariely
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January 7 - February 29, 2024
OWNERSHIP IS NOT limited to material things. It can also apply to points of view.
we overvalue everything that we own,
OUR PROPENSITY TO overvalue what we own is a basic human bias, and it reflects a more general tendency to fall in love with, and be overly optimistic about, anything that has to do with ourselves.
In a modern democracy, he said, people are beset not by a lack of opportunity, but by a dizzying abundance of it.
In fact, choosing between two things that are similarly attractive is one of the most difficult decisions we can make.
if you tell people up front that something might be distasteful, the odds are good that they will end up agreeing with you—not because their experience tells them so but because of their expectations.
WHEN WE BELIEVE beforehand that something will be good, therefore, it generally will be good—and when we think it will be bad, it will bad.
expectations can influence nearly every aspect of our life.
don’t underestimate the power of presentation.
our own behavior can be influenced by our stereotypes, and that activation of stereotypes can depend on our current state of mind and how we view ourselves at the moment.
stereotypes can also affect the behavior of people who are not even part of a stereotyped group.
expectations play a huge role in the way we end up experiencing things.
positive expectations allow us to enjoy things more and improve our perception of the world around us.
placebos run on the power of suggestion. They are effective because people believe in them.
familiarity may or may not breed contempt, but it definitely breeds expectations. Branding, packaging, and the reassurance of the caregiver can make us feel better.
Price can change the experience.
the effect of discounts is largely an unconscious reaction to lower prices.
distrust is infectious.
trust is an important public resource and that losing it can have long-term negative consequences for everyone involved.
people are willing to forgive a bit of lying.
trust, once eroded, is very hard to restore.
when given the opportunity, many honest people will cheat.
once tempted to cheat, the participants didn’t seem to be as influenced by the risk of being caught as one might think.
individuals are honest only to the extent that suits them (including their desire to please others).
We care about honesty and we want to be honest. The problem is that our internal honesty monitor is active only when we contemplate big transgressions,
decline in professionalism is everywhere.
if we are reminded of morality at the moment we are tempted, then we are much more likely to be honest.
oaths and rules must be recalled at, or just before, the moment of temptation.
once professional ethics (the social norms) have declined, getting them back won’t be easy.
honesty really is the best policy, especially in business.
cheating is a lot easier when it’s a step removed from money.
reporting what they no longer have—and increasing its size and value by just a little bit—makes the moral burden easier to bear.
The difference was not the cost of the item, or the fear of getting caught, but people’s ability to justify the item to themselves as a legitimate use of their expense account.
when the medium of exchange is nonmonetary, our ability to rationalize increases by leaps and bounds.
All these electronic transactions, with no physical exchange of money from hand to hand, might make it easier for people to be dishonest—without ever questioning or fully acknowledging the immorality of their actions.
when people order out loud in sequence, they choose differently from when they order in private.
those who made their choices out loud, in the standard way that food is ordered at restaurants, were not as happy with their selections as those who made their choices privately, without taking others’ opinions into consideration.
When people order food and drinks, they seem to have two goals: to order what they will enjoy most and to portray themselves in a positive light in the eyes of their friends.
Getting people to order anonymously is most likely the cheapest and simplest way to increase the enjoyment derived from these experiences.
we are all far less rational in our decision making than standard economic theory assumes.
Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless—they are systematic and predictable.
It is difficult to sacrifice consumption today for saving in the distant future, but it is psychologically easier to sacrifice consumption in the future,
