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the article described three ways in which people made judgments when they didn’t know the answer for sure. The names the authors had given these—representativeness, availability, anchoring—were at once weird and seductive.

We pass up good value that seems unfair, out of spite and in search of revenge.

Algorithms use the judgments of other people who share your tastes to filter through the vast number of books or movies available in order to increase the likelihood of picking one you like.

The New York City schools have recently begun experimenting with a program that pays students for improving their standardized test scores; initial results have been extremely encouraging. By focusing on immediate rewards, these incentive programs help correct for the immature prefrontal cortices of children and teenagers.

“What if I became an altruistic banker, pursuing a lucrative career in order to donate my earnings?” Even a mediocre investment banker could expect sufficient lifetime earnings to pay for several doctors in Africa—and thus would save several times more lives than any one doctor.

Since most of us like to think we are decent people, forcing someone to affirm their own values before exercising a judgment involving others might reduce prejudice. Psychologists these days encourage parents to tell their children not that they should be nice, but that they are nice, and all they have to do is to behave in conformity with their

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Social Proof Robert Cialdini, in his classic book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, talks about the principle of social proof—basically, the tendency of people to view an activity as more worthwhile if other people are doing it.