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The Science of Irrational Decisions

Posted by kdawson on from the why-you-do-what-you-do dept.

The Rat Race Trap blog has a look at one aspect of the irrational decision-making process humans employ, based on the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. "Professor Ariely describes some experiments which demonstrated something he calls 'arbitrary coherence.' Basically it means that once you contemplate a decision or actually make a decision, it will heavily influence your subsequent decisions. That's the coherence part. Your brain will try to keep your decisions consistent with previous decisions you have made. I've read about that many times before, but what was surprising in this book was the the 'arbitrary' part. ... [In an experiment] the fact that the students contemplated a decision at a completely arbitrary price, the last two digits of their social security number, very heavily influenced what they were willing to pay for the product. The students denied that the anchor influenced them, but the data shows something totally different. Correlations ranged from 0.33 to 0.52. Those are extremely significant."

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. So by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will it help me to understand why I read Slashdot instead of doing something productive with my time?

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    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:So by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes. You arbitrarily decided to read Slashdot one day. In order to maintain internal consistency, your brain had to make it seem like this is a good idea, and continually offers up excuses for reading Slashdot.

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      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    2. Re:So by lwsimon · · Score: 4, Funny

      You probably do it too much, though, as you obviously have never spent any time with a dictionary. If you did, you would realize that you just stated that certain shows show intent to physically harm your brain.

      Please use the word "literally" literally in the future.

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      Learn about Photography Basics.
    3. Re:So by dissy · · Score: 4, Funny

      In order to maintain internal consistency, your brain had to make it seem like this is a good idea, and continually offers up excuses for reading Slashdot.

      Pfft, I don't need excuses. I can stop reading Slashdot any time I want!

  2. Re:Yeehaw by Aklyon · · Score: 4, Funny

    define "big words". do you mean closer to "potato" or closer to "superstructure"

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    I reserve the right to have a physical object so I can sell it later, and recover my money.
  3. The wife's ends in 99 by threaded · · Score: 3, Funny

    The wife's number ends in 99, which explains everything.

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    threadeds blog