We all want explanations for why we behave as we do and for the ways the world around us functions. Even when our feeble explanations have little to do with reality. Weโre storytelling creatures by nature, and we tell ourselves story after story until we come up with an explanation that we like and that sounds reasonable enough to believe. And when the story portrays us in a more glowing and positive light, so much the better.
Dan ArielyWhen it comes to the mental world, when we design things like health care and retirement and stock markets, we somehow forget the idea that we are limited. I think that if we understood our cognitive limitations in the same way that we understand our physical limitations โฆ we could design a better world.
Dan ArielyThe people who need to overcome temptation to the highest degree have the hardest time doing it.
Dan ArielyWhy would you take money out of your paycheck at the beginning of the month when you don't know how much money you'll need?
Dan ArielyBut suppose we are nothing more than the sum of our first, naive, random behaviors. What then?
Dan ArielyWe don't really want a huge house, but we want the house to be slightly bigger than our neighbors, and a car that is bigger than our neighbor's, and they're going on vacation that's slightly more expensive, and this escalation happens that things got out of hand.
Dan ArielyIn the U.S., I think there is an ideology of not telling kids what to do. Nobody to tell you who to marry, not tell you what job to pick. You're your own person. You have the freedom to choose, including the freedom to fail in magnificent ways. And I think that's the big difference. In other countries there is basically a social norm about saving that is passed from generation to generation. In the U.S. there isn't.
Dan Ariely