I recently finished Dan Ariely’s book “predictably Irrational“. He is an MIT professor of a rather new field of study called behavioral economics. Here is a link to a quick blurb he gave as a prologue to his book in 2008 in Monterey.
I think behavioral economics is a fascinating filed of study, because it accepts the fact that we as humans are innately flawed in our ability to make rational decisions, therefore as Dan Ariely’s says we are predictably irrational. On his blog he makes and equally compelling review of our irrational behavior regarding health care, and our irrational pull to unproven theories regarding health care and economics. He explores “priming” in a simple study showing that simply suggesting to recall the 10 commandments to a group of students reduces there chances of cheating on a test by 96%. This is regardless of weather on not they could even name one of the ten commandments, or if they even identified themselves as religious.
The point is we are most empowered when we take the time to evaluate our flaws, and as in the video, try to see through the illusions which may lead us to make poor decisions. We also should be aware that decisions are often being made for us, by very smart people who are very good at tugging at our strings of irrationality.
I can suggest in the case of health care, we should all take a trip to the local community health center and be “primed” just like when asked to recall the 10 commandments. Or maybe we should be given a vote with a simple box like in the video: please check the box if you would like to deny millions of people cost effective and affordable healthcare, and get rid of the box that reads please check this box if you would like to give millions of people cost effective and affordable health care… Really I can imagine it just may be so predictably irrational…
People are guilty of having great flaws. Too bad the Republicans think they are free of error. That's the biggest problem with both the far right and the far left.