1 00:00:00,784 --> 00:00:08,162 If you think about this question of defaults, what it really relies on, and 2 00:00:08,162 --> 00:00:12,650 the fact that we don't really know what to do. 3 00:00:12,650 --> 00:00:17,450 You know, if you grow up in a country and your parents told you to always donate 4 00:00:17,450 --> 00:00:22,625 your organs or always buy jam, or always maximize your retirement funding, none of 5 00:00:22,625 --> 00:00:27,294 these interventions would make sense. But the issue is that we just really don't 6 00:00:27,294 --> 00:00:30,562 know what we want. And because we don't know what we want, we 7 00:00:30,562 --> 00:00:33,210 use the environment as a guide to what we want. 8 00:00:33,210 --> 00:00:37,116 We use the environment as the way to influence our thinking, and therefore, 9 00:00:37,116 --> 00:00:41,253 change, what we end up choosing. So for now what I want to do next, is I 10 00:00:41,253 --> 00:00:45,877 want us to think about the extent to which we don't know our preferences. 11 00:00:45,877 --> 00:00:50,202 So think about the following. Imagine I asked half of you to think about 12 00:00:50,202 --> 00:00:53,810 three reasons why you love your significant other. 13 00:00:53,810 --> 00:00:58,298 And I asked the other half to think about ten reasons why you love your significant 14 00:00:58,298 --> 00:01:00,773 other. Now if you don't have anybody right now, 15 00:01:00,773 --> 00:01:04,450 think about somebody you want to be with, rather than somebody you left. 16 00:01:04,450 --> 00:01:08,018 But think about it. Imagine you have to think about three 17 00:01:08,018 --> 00:01:10,544 reasons, imagine you have to think about 10. 18 00:01:10,544 --> 00:01:13,830 And I would give you maybe 10 minutes to think about one of those things. 19 00:01:13,830 --> 00:01:16,854 And at the end of the 10 minutes I would say, okay, please stop. 20 00:01:16,855 --> 00:01:20,614 And tell me how much do you love your significant other, on a scale from zero to 21 00:01:20,614 --> 00:01:22,870 ten? And what do you think you'll buy them for 22 00:01:22,870 --> 00:01:26,110 their birthday and what would you buy them for your anniversary? 23 00:01:26,110 --> 00:01:30,369 And do you think you'll be together in a year, three year, five year, ten years? 24 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:35,704 What do you think, should it matter, whether I ask you to think about three 25 00:01:35,704 --> 00:01:38,388 reasons or ten? Of course it shouldn't matter, because I 26 00:01:38,388 --> 00:01:41,700 didn't tell you anything new. It's not as if I came to you and I said, 27 00:01:41,700 --> 00:01:46,390 you know what, I just met your significant other, what a wonderful, warm, kind human 28 00:01:46,390 --> 00:01:49,250 being, I was just amazed. There was no information. 29 00:01:49,250 --> 00:01:54,057 I only asked you to reflect about somebody you know very, very well. 30 00:01:54,058 --> 00:01:57,388 Well does it matter? Of course it does, I wouldn't present it 31 00:01:57,388 --> 00:02:00,474 otherwise. So who do you think declared greater love 32 00:02:00,474 --> 00:02:03,984 to their significant other? People who are asked to think about three 33 00:02:03,984 --> 00:02:06,182 reasons or people asked to think about ten reasons? 34 00:02:06,183 --> 00:02:12,955 Here's the thing. The reality is that it's very, very, very, 35 00:02:12,955 --> 00:02:16,837 very, very difficult to come up with ten reasons. 36 00:02:16,838 --> 00:02:20,357 So what happens to people who were asked to think about ten reasons? 37 00:02:20,358 --> 00:02:23,220 They get stuck. They get stuck on reason six, seven, 38 00:02:23,220 --> 00:02:25,940 eight, nine, ten. And as they get stuck they say to 39 00:02:25,940 --> 00:02:29,108 themselves, how much possibly can I love this person? 40 00:02:29,108 --> 00:02:33,463 And because of that, they reduce their understanding of how much they love the 41 00:02:33,463 --> 00:02:36,910 significant other. And because of that, people who were asked 42 00:02:36,910 --> 00:02:41,070 to think about three reasons, declare greater love than people asked to think 43 00:02:41,070 --> 00:02:43,750 about ten reasons. By the way, just as a comment I should 44 00:02:43,750 --> 00:02:47,834 say, you don't have to have ten reasons to love somebody, maybe one reason is enough. 45 00:02:47,835 --> 00:02:51,633 It's not about that it's really important to have ten reasons. 46 00:02:51,633 --> 00:02:55,911 But when you tell people to think about ten reasons and they fall short, the 47 00:02:55,911 --> 00:03:00,534 standards make them think, that they are, some how something is not okay with the 48 00:03:00,534 --> 00:03:03,250 relationships. The same thing by the way, works with 49 00:03:03,250 --> 00:03:06,490 BMWs. It turns out that there are not ten 50 00:03:06,490 --> 00:03:09,860 reasons to buy a BMW. And you ask people to think about ten 51 00:03:09,860 --> 00:03:13,406 reasons, they get stuck, and they say, maybe I don't need one. 52 00:03:13,406 --> 00:03:18,197 I don't like to admit it or not, but I use the same trick in teaching. 53 00:03:18,198 --> 00:03:22,050 At the end of each class, when I teach in front of an audience, the dean likes to 54 00:03:22,050 --> 00:03:26,350 see high teaching evaluations. So one of the easiest thing to do is to 55 00:03:26,350 --> 00:03:30,571 just before the students fill in their evaluation for the term, I ask them to 56 00:03:30,571 --> 00:03:33,925 think about 15 ways in which this class could be improved. 57 00:03:33,925 --> 00:03:38,472 Presumably, 15 are too many, they run short and they come up to the conclusion 58 00:03:38,472 --> 00:03:43,405 this was a fantastic class and this is how they fill the end of the year evaluation. 59 00:03:43,406 --> 00:03:48,434 Now, if I did that in the beg-, in the middle of the semester, the 15 reasons, 60 00:03:48,434 --> 00:03:52,630 they will probably forget. But if I do it just before they fill in 61 00:03:52,630 --> 00:03:57,481 the end of year evaluation, now I can change their momentary mindset, their 62 00:03:57,481 --> 00:04:02,332 momentary understanding of how good this class is, and then I can get higher 63 00:04:02,332 --> 00:04:04,003 teaching evaluations.