[ExI] Eliot Spitzer and the Price-Placebo Effect

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Mon Mar 17 15:47:35 UTC 2008


On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 2:56 PM, hkhenson wrote:
>
>  This is important information.  Ghod knows what this psychological
>  trait had to do with reproductive success in the stone age, but you
>  can be assured it did.  Keith
>
>  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/16/AR2008031602168.html
>
>  Eliot Spitzer and the Price-Placebo Effect
>  By Shankar Vedantam
>  Monday, March 17, 2008; Page A03
>


This effect is mentioned in the book about irrational behaviour I
mentioned in my post yesterday.
Currently No.5 in the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller List.

See: <http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?page_id=6>

Do you know why we still have a headache after taking a five-cent
aspirin, but why that same headache vanishes when the aspirin costs 50
cents?

Do you know why we sometimes find ourselves excitedly buying things we
don't really need?

According to Ariely, our understanding of economics, now based on the
assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our
systematic, unsurprising irrationality. Ariely argues that greater
understanding of previously ignored or misunderstood forces (emotions,
relativity and social norms) that influence our economic behavior
brings a variety of opportunities for reexamining individual
motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational
policy.

BillK



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