Josh Barro at NY Time’s ever interesting TheUpshot offers some advice to the next Powerball winner(s): take the annuity, not the lump sum. He makes good points about tax implications that might advantage the annuity. He...
Category - Self Control
Sounds a tad crazy, but there’s now a device that shocks you whenever it detects that you’re engaging in a habit you want to break. Here’s the pitch: MEET PAVLOK: THE FIRST DEVICE THAT BREAKS HABITS BY DELETING...
The right thing is easy to do… except when it’s not. In fact, doing the right thing often requires self regulation: we must set aside the temptation to do what is in our most immediate, selfish interest to pursue a...
The NY Times does a nice job reporting on a recent study suggesting that people who are mentally exhausted have a tougher time slogging through a serious workout. Researchers were able to show that mentally effortful work reduced...
Apple iOS sports a “Do Not Disturb” feature If you’ve ever moved your alarm clock across the room so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off, you understand the difference between good intentions and good...
I know it’s rude to bring this up during the holidays, but it’s not that dress or those pants that make our collective rumps look big. We all know we’ve gotten fatter, and it’s happened remarkably...
- Active Choice
- Adaptive vs. Rational
- Bias to the present
- Happiness
- Opt Out
- Self Control
- Simplify Wisely
- Social norms
Thanksgiving Tips from the Behavioral Sciences
In a Washington Post article, an interview with Dan Ariely led to the following tips for dealing with the potential food stuffage that seems to come along with Thanksgiving: Use chopsticks (or other difficult to handle...
Conor Clarke of The Atlantic interviews Nobel laureate Ken Arrow and touches briefly on behavioral economics: This time around it seems like you hear a lot of dissatisfaction with the rational expectations model. What do you...
