Photo by Isabel Eyre, via Flickr Which would you rather have: A 50 / 50 chance of winning $500 or nothing $250 for sure Many people prefer the sure $250 over the gamble… even though the lottery has the same expected value...
Category - Adaptive vs. Rational
When I worked at Express Scripts, I had the chance to speak briefly to our account management team, the hundreds of people who work daily to support the needs of clients. They provide excellent consultation, solve problems...
Here’s a great way to get your brain around how little time our brains have been around. (It also helps explain why many of our instincts are adapted to a different time and place… and our brains have yet to catch...
Yesterday, digital health company Healthrageous announced that it was closing its doors and selling off its assets to an unnamed “innovative healthcare company.” Mary Beth Clark, who was the interim president and CEO...
Interesting article in Time on the general tendency of people to look at the future and the past through rose-colored glasses. No one’s totally sure why this happens, but presumably there are certain selection advantages...
The New York Times reports on executive pay and mutual fund management fees, topics which are getting fairly significant interest in the courts. On one side are the econs, who argue that the market will solve outsized fees by...
By now, most of us have seen the toothless smile of Mr. Chris Shaw, the young feller from Missouri who found himself the sole winner of the 10th largest multi-state lottery jackpot to date in the US. His take: $258 million. ...
In a recent NY Times column, Robert Frank schools us on social transitivity, noting that some people can’t be better at something unless other people are worse at it. His core argument is that paying mediocre performers is...
Nudge guru Prof. Richard Thaler is at it again, digging up evidence of how bad we are at making decisions. This time he (and a Yale colleague) go after the NFL first-round draft, showing that pick order and “trade...
The Wall Street Journal reports on the emerging TV trend called “behavioral placement.” It’s an odd term, but is a reworking of the practice of product placement, in which a sponsor’s goods show up in the show. Behavioral...
