Sublime

The lesson: Just like the origami builders, Sumi and I too have an egocentric bias. Our taste is most likely just our taste, and very few people share it—but it was hard for us to truly appreciate and understand this.

minds and limber

My motive here is both generous and selfish. It’s generous because feeling in control makes people happier. It’s also selfish because, as we’ve discussed, making it more comfortable for people to say no makes them more willing to say yes. This

Your micro-motives comprise part of your core identity

For example, when Thaler asked people whether they would drive twenty minutes out of their way to save five dollars on a fifteen-dollar calculator, 68 percent of respondents said yes. However, when he asked people whether they would drive twenty minutes out of their way to save five dollars on a $125 leather jacket, only 29 percent said they would.

If people know their preferences, and know that they dislike the outcome that is embedded in the default, they will probably change it.

Yet our participants’ behavior clearly revealed that we are strongly motivated by identity, the need for recognition, a sense of accomplishment, and feeling of creation.

future. One of the main lessons of behavioral economics is that small changes to the environment we live in matter.

Each of us claims multiple identities.