Ted: Irrational Behavior

Watch is here

“If we understood cognitive limitations as well as our physical limitations, we would behave more rationally”. This explains why we can so easily fool our minds with visual illusions. Another great example Ariely explains is the form at the DMV (US motor vehicle department) which says something in the line of: ‘Check the box, if you would like to be an organ-donor’. A simple question, but it didn’t result in many organ-donors. However simply rephrasing the question to: ‘Check the box, if you don’t want to be an organ-donor’ yielded a much more positive response. In both cases the majority didn’t check the box, because they subconsciously felt the question was not simple, but difficult and complex and thus discarded the allocation of any more thinking on the subject.

“The question is so complex, we don’t know what to do, And because we don’t know what to do, we just pick whatever was chosen for us.”

But what about professionals, who are experts in these kind of decisions? In a case-study, a patient has hip-problems and none of the medications seem to work. The physician recommends hip replacement. The day after, the physician realises he has forgotten to try one medication. It this case, most physicians would call the patient back from the hip-replacement. But if the hypothetical claims the physician has forgotten to try two different medications, most physicians wouldn’t call off the hip-replacement. Because the choice became more complex, the majority of the physicians chose the option which was already chosen.

A fascinating, and yet perhaps a little worrying talk that is certainly worth watching. For more information on this weird concept it’s further explained in his book “Predictable Irrational”.