Why People Agree to Work Boring Jobs
NPR recently covered my research with David Comerford on effort aversion. Our research gives some insight into how people wind up in boring jobs. You can listen to the NPR Morning Edition segment here.
They take our money, and hand it over to hospitals and doctors, while keeping a good portion for themselves. What a waste, huh? Well, yes and no. To see a really illuminating discussion of health insurance companies, and what they really do, see this blog http://michaelbrownmd.blogspot.com/2010/02/health-insurance-does-not-earn-its.html by Michael Brown– the Chief Information Officer at Harvard…
As a science, economics does not always succeed at predicting how humans behave. The discipline assumes a level of rationality, and an ability to process complex information, that far exceeds human capacity. But as a standard for how people ought to behave, economics provides an excellent set of lessons. Consider the economic principle of consistency in financial…
In collaboration with several co-authors, including Peggy Liu – a marketing PhD student here at Fuqua – I just published a paper on how behavioral economics can help us think about better ways to combat obesity. Feel free to check it out. And feel free to send along your thoughts, too. Using Behavioral Economics to…
Ever wonder why your spouse eats too much even when you warn him or her not to eat too much? It could be because your admonitions put your spouse into a state of reactance, causing them to go against your advice just to prove their independence. Reactance is a state of mind that arises when…
Recently my employer, Duke University, announced it would be charging $10 more per month to offer health insurance to smokers (see story here). Duke’s policy has a couple motivations. Smokers get sick you see, and those smoking related illnesses cost Duke money. So it’s only fair to pass some of those expenses… (Read the rest and view…
Behavioral economists have written a lot about sunk costs. The idea is pretty simple: once people have invested in an effort – in time or money – they stick with that effort longer than is otherwise justified. They don’t want to feel like they’ve wasted their investment, so they continue to invest even when pulling…