Friday, September 18, 2009

Human tendencies

I list below as points a short paragraph in the introduction of a paper[1] that highlights some common human tendencies:

Individuals have self-control and time inconsistency problems.
They can give into short-run temptations and later regret it.
They can have strong feelings about others that drive them to commit both generous and spiteful acts.
They often passively accept defaults rather than make active choices.
They let the institutions around them make choices for them.
And they may misread new data in ways that fit their beliefs.

These may be obvious. But I thought it is a tidy summary, and one well worth remembering by each individual. An awareness of one's propensities is a useful tool in preventing oneself from injuring oneself and others with one's fallibilities.


[1]DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS THROUGH THE LENS OF PSYCHOLOGY, Sendhil Mullainathan

3 comments:

Useless Bugger said...

Interesting. Do you have the link to the whole paper?

skar said...

www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/.../WDSP/IB/2004/.../28974.pdf

kochuthresiamma p .j said...

how true!agree wholesale.