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...
Category - Fifty Bits Design
Just got this automated e-mail from American Airlines reminding me of some ways I can use my frequent flier miles. Two things caught my eye: the number of miles in my account (42,061) and the following statement: You’re...
- 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...
The New York Times reports on the effect of choice architecture on tips for taxi drivers: The increase in tips, however, may have less to do with New Yorkers’ generosity than with the preset amounts suggested to passengers on...
The New York Times reports on an audio nudge to reduce injuries from electric vehicles: Safety experts, worried that hybrids pose a threat if pedestrians, children, and others can’t hear them approaching, want automakers to...
I recently spent the weekend in California with my wife, sister-in-law, and niece. My in-laws have a Wii gaming console, of which I’ve heard but never played. Suffice it to say that I played more video games during...
The Nudge blog updates readers on a pilot project that seeks to reduce the carbon footprint in the United Kingdom: The residents are asked to make pledges in a face-to-face conversation with one of the canvassers who have been...
Richard Thaler, co-author of Nudge, writes an interesting piece about the behavioral economics of organ donation for The New York Times. Research has long shown that opt-in donor registration programs result in low rates of...
The Obama administration is throwing some serious behavioral economics at our country’s savings problems, reports The New York Times. The new initiatives are based on a healthy dose of simplicity and ease of use. Mr. Obama...
Nick de la Mare over at frog design recently underscored the interesting distinction between tools and machines: While tools offer a clear linkage between user and task, the machine offers an advantage in functionality with the...
