Tuesday, March 9, 2010

TED Talk Tuesday: Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

Fascinating and funny talk. One great quote regarding our tendency to pick the default: "We care (about a particular decision), it's difficult, it's complex, and it's so complex that we don't know what to do. And because we have no idea what to do, we just pick whatever it was that was chosen for us." And another: "The moment you set [an option] as the default, it has a huge power on whatever people end up doing."

How often do we pick the default by.... default?



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1 comment:

  1. Loved it !

    When explaining the variance of organ donation habits in Europe Ariely says it is due to the default, "It is so complex that we don't know what to do ... so we pick whatever was chosen for us."

    One can easily see how this also happens in religion.

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Religion, skepticism, and carving out a spiritual life post-Mormonism