gideonstargrave

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner, from Super Freakonomics (on the introduction of the seat belt to automobiles):

"McNamara was of course right: the seat belt would eventually save many lives. But the key word here is "eventually."

The brilliant rationalist had encountered a central, frustrating tenant of human nature: behavior change is hard. The cleverest engineer or economist or politician or parent may come up with a cheap, simple solution to a problem, but if it requires people to change their behavior, it may not work. Every day, billions of people around the world engage in behaviors they know are bad for them - smoking cigarettes, gambling excessively, riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Why? Because they want to! They derive pleasure from it, or a thrill, or just a break from the daily humdrum. And getting them to change their behavior, even with a fiercely rational argument, isn't easy."



Explains a whole lot, yes??

Also, while discussing global warming:

"Although economists are trained to be cold-blooded enough to sit around and calmly discuss the trade-offs involved in global catastrophe, the rest of us are a bit more excitable. And most people respond to uncertainty with more emotion - fear, blame, paralysis - than may be advisable."

Again,



That is all. For now...