INCREASED CREATIVITY WHEN THINKING ABOUT DISTANT THINGS Decision Science News has nothing against a good word problem. Heck, there would be no field of Judgment and Decision Making if it weren’t for Kahneman & Tversky’s word problems. Here’s one A prisoner was attempting to escape from a tower. He found a rope in his cell that was half as long enough to permit him to reach the ground safely. He divided the rope in half, tied the two parts together, and escaped. How could he have done this? This problem was given to students in Indiana. One group was told that this…
Decision Science
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Decision Science News
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Solving problems by thinking from a distance
3 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am -
Three years of funding reduces the fundamental uncertainty of the world
29 Oct 2009 | 4:01 pmMAX PLANCK POSTDOCS IN DECISION MAKING IN ECONOMICS, LAW, OR PSYCHOLOGY The International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (Uncertainty-School) combines approaches from Economics, Law and Psychology to explain human decisions under uncertainty more effectively and to better design institutional responses. The Uncertainty- School is jointly hosted by the Max Planck Institutes at Jena, Berlin and Bonn, and the Psychology and Economics Departments of the FSU Jena. International Partners are the Department of Psychology of Indiana University,… -
OPIM professorship at Wharton
22 Oct 2009 | 7:04 amDEPARTMENT OF OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROFESSORSHIP Department of Operations and Information Management The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania The Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School is home to faculty with a diverse set of interests in decision-making, information technology, information-based strategy, operations management, and operations research. We are seeking applicants for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position. Applicants must have a Ph.D. (expected completion by June 30, 2011 is acceptable) from an accredited institution… -
Decision Making Individual Differences Inventory (DMIDI)
12 Oct 2009 | 7:43 amDIFFERENT PEOPLE USE DIFFERENT HEURISTICS: START IDENTIFYING STRATEGIES Decision Science News does not like arguments that ‘people’, on average, do (or do not) use a certain decision making strategy. If half the people use the strategy, and half do not, on average it looks like everyone does a little bit, even when the average is as vacant as a volleyball. It’s like the joke about three statisticians who go duck hunting. The first shoots too high, the second shoots too low, and the third yells out “we hit it”! The good news is Elke Weber, Kerry Milch, Michel… -
The Bulgarian coincidence
6 Oct 2009 | 2:27 pmLAND OF MYSTERIOUS REPETITION Decision Science News used to think of Bulgaria as a haven for cheap skiing, but has recently learned that it is the land of magical coincidences. On September 6th, the winning lBulgarian ottery numbers were 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 Amazing? Hardly. But on the very next play of the lottery the winning numbers were 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 Amazing? Yes. Coincidence? Maybe. Shenanigans? Maybe. Eighteen people bet on the winning numbers the second time around, which is technically a fraction of the Bulgarian population. According to the BBC an investigation is…
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WordPress Tag: Behavioral Economics
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Marketing + Psychology = $$$
3 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pmChalk it up to naiveté, being new in the world of marketing, but I thought that the important intersection between marketing and psychology was obvious. It’s one of the reasons that advertising and marketing initially appealed to me. But after reading “Why advertising needs behavioral economics” by Rory Sutherland, it would seem that maybe the world doesn’t value that connection like I thought. Sutherland asks, “Why is marketing – and, more importantly, the vital study of human behavior – so little celebrated in the wider world of business?” Perhaps because I was brought up… -
Parochial Altruism and War: A Game Theoretic Analysis
30 Oct 2009 | 7:07 pmNorth America during the Pleistocene War, what is it good for? Apparently, altruism. In a paper published in Science, Samuel Bowels and Jung-Kyoo Choi took a game-theoretic approach to studying the evolutionary roots of both altruism and parochialism. They concluded that neither would have likely evolved alone, but instead co-evolved, together being a powerful combination in the survival kit of our Pleistocene and early Holocene ancestors. Abstract Altruism–benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself–and parochialism–bostility toward individuals not of… -
Experiment #1
27 Oct 2009 | 12:31 am@ UNMC’s, a typical lecture room can accomodate approximately 350 students. Okay, im not sure about the exact number of seats in our largest lecture room, but im assuming its 350 and im also assuming that all seats were occupied, nobody was standing. Based on my 2 assumptions, i will try to understand students’ seating behaviour in the lecture room. [to be updated] -
Tick Tick Tech Tech: Gadgetoholism
25 Oct 2009 | 8:08 amSameer is a software engineer and works with a top IT Company. Like most of his friends, he is a gad -
The Behavioral Economics of The McDonald's Monopoly Game
23 Oct 2009 | 9:15 amI’m embarrassed to admit it, simply because for the last decade or so I have tried so hard to reject the fast-food diet I had as a kid growing up in rural America. Still, however, there is a warm place in my heart for the McDonald’s Monopoly game. One thing I notice now, though, that I didn’t notice then, is how McDonald’s plays on our irrationality to make this annual marketing campaign such a success. There are two elements, specifically, that it relies on. “Threshold” Values This is a term that I’m making up, perhaps only because I’m not…
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TierneyLab
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Martin Gardner Prize
6 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pmThe judges have a prize for the best tribute to Martin Gardner, and the readers have solutions to Mr. Gardner's puzzles. -
Treating the Pain Epidemic
5 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pmChronic pain affects more than 70 million Americans, which makes it more widespread than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. So why don't more doctors and researchers take it seriously? -
Office Gossip Strategies
2 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pmWhat's the gossip in your office? What's the gossip doing to your office? And what are the best strategies for gossips or anti-gossips to employ in the office? -
Monday Puzzle: The Case of the Mixed-Up Princes(s)
2 Nov 2009 | 9:01 amWouldn't it be nice to have a technique, a magic bullet, that guaranteed you the highest probability of making your best choice in your mate? -
The Cosmic Countdown in Geneva Goes On
31 Oct 2009 | 10:10 amScientists at CERN have sent a beam of protons into the Large Hadron Collider, and ran them part way around the giant underground ring successfully before dumping them.
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WordPress Tag: Decision Management
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The Devil is in the Default Option Details
2 Nov 2009 | 4:52 pmSo I just started reading Nudge, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, and I must say that the book does a remarkable job at articulating how the behaviors behind our everyday choices can be manipulated through understanding the mind traps that we commonly fall into. The initial mind trap that made me take a step back and think, was the idea of how the “default” option is almost always the most popular choice in every multiple choice (but mandatory) selection process. This is because individuals are either too unmotivated to choose something more complex, forget about… -
Which software do we use in the office?
24 Oct 2009 | 11:42 amOhri’s Theorem on Decision Management regarding which software do we buy- 1) Assuming no budget constraints If X be degree of appropriateness of software to a particular use- where 0 is totally bad and 1 is perfect for use. Then the probability p of the software be selected = P/ Q where P is total number of users who Know how to Use software (like R) and Q is total number of users who dont know how to use the Software (like Macros or R) As the number of users begins to increase P/Q converges to Integral of X dx Cartoon Citation: http://www.gapingvoid.com -
Achieving Agility Using Decision Management - New Article
17 Oct 2009 | 1:50 pmCo-authored an article with decision management guru James Taylor on achieving organization agility using decision management – it was recently published at BPM institute. Like this post? Subscribe to RSS feed or get blog updates via email. -
Today's CFO needs Insight
9 Oct 2009 | 6:38 amWhile the economic value of decisions made is very large, yet the CFO’s greatest challenge is: Visibility: into key operational drivers. Forecasting: Ability to easily construct economic forecasts with “what if” scenarios and Bridging Organizational Silos: Readily extract meaningful information about business performance from their organizations silos, i.e., disparate financial, operational and transactional systems. -
The Desire to Win
4 Oct 2009 | 7:20 amWhat makes Tiger Woods, or Tom Brady different. It is an insatiable desire to win. Burning desire is the starting point of all achievement. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. All achievement, all earned riches have their beginning in an idea! – Napoleon Hill. The journey towards self-employment and financial freedom begins with one, single, passionate idea. We have all had them, ideas that would revolutionize the world, simplify life or enhance the functionality of a product. Usually these all-pervasive ideas come to us while we are in the…
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WordPress Tag: Decision Theory
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Cost-benefit analysis in foreign policy
28 Oct 2009 | 2:27 pmWhen we debate domestic policy in the US, we’re accustomed to looking at all our options. How much does the proposal cost? What will it get us? What else could we do with that money? The one exception to the rule seems to be healthcare, where no one likes to admit that prolonging life has a finite value. Foreign policy, like health care, is bedevilled by the perception that no cost is too high for national security. But by looking at how economists have successfully incorporated cost-benefit analysis into health care decisions, we can learn how to begin to subject foreign policy to the… -
The Predictive Power Of Game Theory
29 Sep 2009 | 11:07 amIn this clip from The Daily Show, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita discusses predicting world affairs using models based on game theory to an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy (twice that of the CIA by their own estimation). It’s really exciting stuff. His book is called on The Predictioneer’s Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future and sounds must-read to me. Your Thoughts? -
Nonprobabilistic Cognitive Decision Theory
28 Sep 2009 | 4:20 amI’ve just got back from a philosophy of probability conference in Oxford. It was very interesting. Here are some thoughts I had about Hilary Greaves’ talk. The project is to flesh out an idea of epistemic rationality by analogy to practical rationality and practical decision theory. The idea is that in the “Cognitive Decision Theory” the sort of acts you are interested in are various beliefs you could adopt. Or various belief functions you could adopt. There is an idea of cognitive utility which is supposed to be a measure of how epistemically good you think a certain… -
The Tale of The Long Tail - Anderson wasn't all that right
20 Sep 2009 | 9:15 amHaving myself dug through at least 30 companies traffic and sales data over the last decade I agree with these Wharton researchers. The Wharton researchers also disagree with Anderson’s theory and its implicit challenge to the Pareto principle, or so-called 80-20 rule, which in this case would state that 20% of the movie titles generate 80% of sales. Anderson argues that as demand shifts down the tail, the effect would diminish. Using Netflix data, Netessine and Tan show the opposite — an even stronger effect, with demand for the top 20% of movies increasing from 86% in 2000 to… -
MAP estimators are not truly Bayesian estimators
11 Sep 2009 | 3:36 pmThis morning, I found this question from Ronald in my mailbox “I have been reading the Bayesian Choice (2nd Edition). On page 166 you note that, for continuous parameter spaces, the MAP estimator must be defined as the limit of a sequence of estimators corresponding to a sequence of 0-1 loss functions with increasingly smaller nonzero epsilons. This would appear to mean that the MAP estimator for continuous spaces is not Bayes-optimal, as is frequently claimed. To be Bayes-optimal, it would have to minimize the Bayes risk for a single, fixed loss function. Instead, it must be…
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Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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In the Applied Statistics Blog this week
6 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm1. Understanding the 'Russian Mortality Paradox' in Central Asia: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan Short answer: alcohol and suicide. 2. Lumberjacks as a counterexample to the idea of a "risk premium" They take lots of risks and don't get paid well for it. 3. Cell size and scale This is a visualization you won't want to miss. 4. Three guys named Matt 5. The political philosophy of the private eye A genre that was rendered obsolete in 1961 (but nobody realizes it). -
The two blogs
6 Nov 2009 | 6:44 amTyler Cowen writes: Andrew Gelman will have a second blog. I don't yet understand the forthcoming principle of individuation across the two blogs. I have to admit I haven't thought this through at any level of detail. When the Science Blogs people asked me if I wanted to blog there, I canvassed my co-bloggers, and most of them thought it was a good idea. The Science Blog would reach a new audience, but I didn't want to abandon the blog here. (This blog is an extension of my research persona, which seems about right to me. On Science Blogs, I'm just one of seventy bloggers, which is fine--I… -
Slipperiness of the term "risk aversion"
5 Nov 2009 | 11:57 amI don't like the term "risk aversion" (see here and here). For a long time I've been meaning to write something longer and more systematic on the topic, but every once in awhile I see something that reminds me of the slipperiness of the topic. For example, Alex Tabarrok asks, "Why are Americans more risk averse about medicine than Europeans?" It's a good question, and it's something I've wondered about myself. But I don't know what he's talking about when he says that "the stereotype is that Americans are more risk-loving" than Europeans. Huh? Americans are notorious for worrying about risks,… -
Computing power, n, and multilevel models
5 Nov 2009 | 6:37 amAsa writes: I took your class on multilevel models last year and have since found myself applying them in several different contexts. I am about to start a new project with a dataset in the tens of millions of observations. In my experience, multilevel modeling has been most important when the number of observations in at least one subgroup of interest is small. Getting started on this project, I have two questions: 1) Do multilevel models still have the potential to add much accuracy to predictions when n is very large in all subgroups of interest? 2) Do you find SAS, STATA, or R to be more… -
Jewish Marriage Tied to Israel Trip
5 Nov 2009 | 2:06 amAleks sends along this amusing news article by Jennifer Levitz: A new study found that rates of marriage outside the faith were sharply curbed among young Jews who have taken "birthright" trips to Israel . . . Over the past decade, Taglit-Birthright Israel, a U.S. nonprofit founded by Jewish businessmen, has sponsored nearly 225,000 young Jewish adults for free 10-day educational tours of Israel as a way to foster Jewish identity. . . . A study [by Brandeis University researcher Leonard Saxe and partly funded by Taglit-Birthright] showed that 72% of those who went on the trip married within…
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Strategic Thinking
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The French – German Nuclear Energy Divide
4 Nov 2009 | 11:29 amWhat explains the diametrically opposed positions on nuclear power witnessed between France and Germany? France is arguably the most pro-nuclear energy country in the world, and Germany, while it may be having second thoughts, has been retiring its aging nuclear plants so as to gradually phase out of the nuclear energy business. These two countries have quite a bit in common in addition to being neighbors. They have similar sized populations and economies. While Germany is a little bigger in terms of both population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the two countries’ per capita… -
US Nuclear Renaissance: Policy in Place…Check…Where are the Plants?
28 Oct 2009 | 8:07 amWhen I started studying the question of how nuclear power’s expansion was likely to transpire, I, like many, took it as a given that there would be a substantial global expansion of nuclear power plant construction. I expected the “renaissance” would include both growth in countries that have long had a near de facto moratorium on plant construction (e.g. the United States) as well as some of the more promising aspirant countries that have not previously had commercial nuclear power such as Indonesia and Turkey. While I never believed that most of the states clamoring… -
Imperial Over-reach and the Case of the Missing 40,000 Troops
22 Oct 2009 | 10:11 amIn the Fall of 2002 I drafted an essay that became a Cato Institute Policy Analysis paper on why invading Iraq was a bad idea. In essence, the paper used rational actor theory to propose that there were better ways to address the threat to US security interests posed by Iraq, to the extent such threats existed, than by going to war. Now, seven years later, it is interesting to revisit the subject. What made me think about this the recent discussion about a surge for Afghanistan. General McChrystal’s suggestion that 40,000 additional troops need to be introduced into… -
Obama’s China Policy: Trade Wars and Random Acts of Appeasement
5 Oct 2009 | 11:00 amI was disappointed to see that the Obama administration rejected a meeting with the Dalai Lama on his upcoming visit to Washington DC. This symbolic act of deference to the Chinese seems like an interesting follow up to slapping a massive 35 percent tariff on tires imported from China. This shows just how politics results in bass-ackwards policy. While comparing the Chinese Tire Tariff to the Hawley Smoot Tariff Act may be hyperbole, it cannot be said to be sound economic policy by any stretch of the imagination. (Proponents of tariffs often forget that the US exports things as well, and… -
Iran’s Second Covert Enrichment Facility
25 Sep 2009 | 12:17 pmIran’s President Ahmedinejad has a lot to keep straight. When he’s inside Iran, the Holocaust didn’t happen, but when abroad it did happen (no, may have happened?) – but is irrelevant to today’s world. Is it any wonder that it would have slipped his mind to mention to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran was building another uranium enrichment facility until, once again, Tehran was caught with its hand in the cookie jar. This does answer a question that I’ve asked many times, which is how Iran intended to get from its current position…
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WordPress Tag: Decision Making
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Heretical Aspirations
6 Nov 2009 | 11:49 amHere is an interesting notion; we humans and this moment in time which we occupy are nothing special. Some would consider that to be heretical. Galileo in his support of the work of Copernicus faced lifelong house arrest for simply asserting that the Earth moved around the sun and that the Earth was not the center of everything. There is a strong tendency on the part of humans to see themselves as the center, as critically important to the greater scheme of things; to be told that the Earth on which we humans reside was not central to existence upset this world view, the notions that some… -
Which pill- this or that?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:57 amTen years back you took some decisions. 5 years back you took some more and what about 2 years back? Yes! You still took more decisions. Even today you have been making decisions, major or minor, continually. What these questions are for, you may ask? That’s been answered at the end. Our life is like driving a car, and on our way towards different destinations it’s deciding whether to take right, left or just go straight. We can of course take reverse and change the way we head, but there’s another way—choosing our decisions wisely and carefully. If one becomes very good at… -
The magic wand to choose the right pill
6 Nov 2009 | 8:45 amThe magic wand to choose the right pill Choices make us and we make our life. The following three points will serve as a compass guiding you toward a new world called “effective decision-making”. Decisions make our life: Our life, the success in it and all other things we accomplish are a result of choices we make or fail to make. With each correct decision you can be assured that you are moving in the right direction. Taking the effort to be serious in each of the decision-making process, big or small, will ensure your success and smooth riding all through your life. Have purpose: People… -
Practical Decision Making
6 Nov 2009 | 7:16 amThe moment I realized that I had gone through with the “procedure” I started having baby thoughts. It is like when your a teenager and searching for security and love from your peers. As teenagers, we go through the whole wanting acceptance. I am having an inner fight with myself about accepting me and my various components. The hardest part is accepting that I let some douche bag come into my life and control the decisions that I made. Furthermore, I made a life altering choice and now I am wondering how have I altered my future. So we go through life making decisions where the… -
Drucker on long term values
6 Nov 2009 | 4:27 am“Whether a business should be run for short-term results or with a focus on the long term is likewise a question of values. Financial analysts believe that businesses can be run for both simultaneously. Successful businesspeople know better. To be sure, every company has to produce short-term results. But in any conflict between short-term results and long-term growth, each company will determine its own priority. This is not primarily a disagreement about economics. It is fundamentally a value conflict regarding the function of a business and the responsibility of management.”…
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Kevin Hoffberg's Blog
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Europe. Where the History Comes From
3 Nov 2009 | 10:55 amIt’s nearing the end of Day 5 in BCN, so at this point I think I can fairly say that I am now an expert on all things Barcelonian, particularly because I have now been to not one but two museums having to do with the history of the city and the surrounding area, not to mention a day visit to the ancient hub of the area, Tarragona. So what have I surmised? There are no fat people This seems important given the raging debate about health care (if that’s what it’s really about) in the US. Here in Barcelona, which is in Europe which is as all Americans know vastly inferior to the US,… -
District 23 Where Are You?
31 Oct 2009 | 2:35 pmWhat passes for the conservative intelligentsia has suddenly become hugely concerned about the doings up in New York Congressional District 23. The Club for Growth (funded by a crotchety zillionaire from Arkansas), Tim Pawlenty (trying to put some bounce in his non-existent national awareness), Sarah Palin (who is everywhere), Fred Thompson, Glen Beck, Rushbo, Dick Armey, Newt Gingrich . . . they’re all, all in, which has now brought the Obamas to the fray. Wow. It’s good to see all these good conservatives taking such an interest in, where is it again? Oh yeah,… -
Has Conservatism Become the New Moral Relativism?
23 Oct 2009 | 2:51 pmSome interesting articles in the Seattle Washrag this morning having to do with South Carolina. Normally 47 people give a rip but for two factors: Boeing is threatening to move more production there and the political leadership of the state, and I’m using that term loosely, can’t seem to stay out of the news. So here’s what’s stuck in my craw. Their idiot governor was part of the famous class of ‘94 that swept into Washington DC during the early stanzas of the Clinton opera. Among their many accomplishments were shutting down the government (over Medicare… -
Obama Takes The Gloves Off
17 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pmThis rant begins with a story. I just came back from a road trip where I spent two days trying to close out a negotiation I started a year ago. For our little company, it’s big money. Up until yesterday, I thought the number was in the x range over several years. Turns out there are new facts on the ground so it’s y in the range. But still big. The actual amounts don’t matter. So what does an entrepreneur do? You figure out a way to deliver value to the client under the new constraints. You rescope, rescale, and rethink. If you were a squad… -
My Heart is Broken, My Dear Friend Steve Has Died
14 Sep 2009 | 6:13 pmSome people have many friends. I’m not that person. While I know many people, I count very few of them as true friends and fewer still are in the inner circle. Steve is one of those in that circle. I’ve known Steve since I was in high school. I met him because he dated my younger sister. She met him because he knew my mom from her work as a campus counselor at the college in Brockport, NY. At least for me it wasn’t love at first sight. He was just this guy. And then he became a friend. Over the years Steve and I had some good adventures together. We did some carpentry…
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Nudge blog
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Putting the special in special teams: Perceived value and football at the University of Texas
4 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pmFrequent Nudge blog readers might have watched Rory Sutherland’s TED talk about the intangible “perceived value” that advertising adds to products. Sutherland cites some historical examples of counter intuitive ways to change behaviors. For instance, the King of Prussia wanted his subjects to eat potatoes so he ordered people to eat them. Complete failure. Undeterred, he got the idea to restrict potato consumption to the royal family and set up a special King’s potato garden. Suddenly everyone wanted one. A version of this strategy is alive and well on the University… -
Social media meets the traffic report
3 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pmReader Jack Harding passes along news of a free iPhone app that tries to put crowd wisdom behind the wheel by allowing drivers to directly tell other drivers about road conditions. The app does have professional traffic reports, but its most innovative feature is enabling drivers to leave “shouts” about what kind of traffic they are seeing for themselves along certain routes. There are even special “shout” rooms for road ragers who need to blow off some steam, and American Idol wannabees who need a little practice. Unlike a simple crowd signal such as a poll, drivers… -
A nudge at the Patent and Trademark Office
29 Oct 2009 | 9:59 pmOf interest to lawyers, the PTO has switched the default procedure with respect to the handling of what are called Requests for Continued Examination, which are essentially appeals to the patent board to keep considering an application. Dennis Crouch of the Patently-O blog reports on this change: In the past, one benefit of RCEs was that they were quickly examined as part of the theory of compact-prosecution – in essence, RCE filings were treated almost just like an office action response. Under a new procedure, the PTO will now be placing RCE applications in the same queue as… -
Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner explains why he started writing about economics…
29 Oct 2009 | 9:22 pmThe reason that I started writing about economics, maybe ten years ago, is Richard Thaler, co-author of Nudge. When one starts to read the behavioural literature, one gets very, very excited. It’s so sexy and counter-intuitive. The insights gained from behavioural economic research, when put in the hands of someone like Thaler, can work practically. For example, he came up with the idea that every time people get a raise, they should contribute a slightly larger amount to their pension and still take home more money at the same time. You basically hide the pain of saving more, and it… -
Assorted links
27 Oct 2009 | 8:56 am1. A cell phone targeted at elderly customers includes a dial tone that mimics a cordless landline. The sound is meant to tip off elderly users that the phone is working. (Hat tip: Justin Holz) 2. Debating the healthcare coverage mandate in the Washington Post. What does behavioral economics have to say? 3. Does showing pictures of a healthy salad give people an excuse to pick the fries? (Hat tip: Richard Kenworthy) 4. Safeway has instituted a health insurance premium surcharge for obesity. Or a premium discount for healthy living, depending on your frame. Safeway CEO Steve Burd tells NPR…
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Predictably Irrational
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Tiny Irrationalities That Add Up: Texting While Driving
5 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amSad story out in the New York Times describing growing concerns about texting while driving. In Britain, a woman was sentenced to a 21-month sentence after it was found that she had been texting while driving, which resulted in the death of a 24-year old design student. In many ways, texting while driving illustrates a case in which tiny, individual irrational decisions can accumulate and cause widespread suffering, not only for the individuals who are texting, but their unsuspecting victims. Unlike cases of drunk driving, in which the driver’s decision making abilities are impaired,… -
The psychology of money and habits
1 Nov 2009 | 2:12 amMoney is an integral part of modern life. We constantly make decisions about whether we’re willing to pay for different products and, if so, how much we are willing to pay. In fact, we make decisions about money so often that we consider money to be a natural part of our environment. However, money is a relatively recent invention, and despite its incredible economic usefulness it does come with its own set of problems. In particular, it turns out that decisions about money are often non-intuitive and, in fact, quite difficult. Consider the following situation as an example: You are… -
Help find a name
30 Oct 2009 | 3:20 amI recently started working on my next book. It is generally going to be more stories about my research and the plan is to have 3 parts Part 1: Personal life, happiness, adaptation, dating, and online dating Part 2: business life: motivation at work, the role of bonuses, mistrust, and revenge Part 3: cheating: the effects of observing other people cheat, group based cheating, the effect of one dishonest act on others etc. The current title is: Living irrationally: the way we work, date and cheat. If you have any other suggestions for a title, please email me at dan at predictablyirrational dot… -
A pop-up book of PI
26 Oct 2009 | 11:44 amLuisa Monk, a high school student in the UK just created a pop-up version of my book. have a look: Click here to view the embedded video. -
Submitting a short story?
20 Oct 2009 | 3:12 amDear Readers – Over the last few months I have posted a few short fictional stories that some of the students in my class wrote (see this link). Some were more popular and some were less, but many of you expressed interest in sharing your own fictional short stories or experiences of irrational behaviors So –If you are interested in submitting a short story, I will post the best of these here, and if you are interested in sharing a kernel of an idea with me, I will take the best of these and try to make a short (fictional) story from it Please send your stories and / or experiences to…
