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People Pick Gifts That Will “Wow” Rather Than Satisfy Recipients
Gift givers tend to focus on the “big reveal,” choosing the gift that will surprise and delight the recipient in the moment over the one that will bring long-term satisfaction.
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Maria Konnikova Shows Her Cards
As a science writer at The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova, 34, focuses on the brain, and the weird and interesting ways people use their brains. Dr. Konnikova is an experimental psychologist trained at Columbia University.
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Young Adults Help Parents Instead of Friends When Forced to Choose
Findings from a risk-taking game show that, when forced to make a decision that benefits either a parent or a close friend, young adults are more likely to choose the parent.
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Why the Most Important Idea in Behavioral Decision-Making Is a Fallacy
Loss aversion, the idea that losses are more psychologically impactful than gains, is widely considered the most important idea of behavioral decision-making and its sister field of behavioral economics. To illustrate the importance loss aversion
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The Sunk Cost Fallacy Is Ruining Your Decisions. Here’s How
If you’ve ever let unworn clothes clutter your closet just because they were expensive, or followed through on plans you were dreading because you already bought tickets, you’re familiar with the sunk cost fallacy. “The
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How Other People’s Investments Can Elicit the Sunk-Cost Fallacy
A researcher looks at the interpersonal side of our tendency to avoid sunk costs.
A researcher takes a fresh look at why people often persist with an unpleasant or unprofitable endeavor because they don’t want the resources they’ve already invested to go to waste.
