Quotes About Behavior

Se podría sugerir que la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.

As with most bad behaviors, drunk driving could probably be wiped out entirely if a strong-enough incentive were instituted—random roadblocks, for instance, where drunk drivers are executed on the spot—but our society probably doesn't have the appetite for that.

Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work—whereas economics represents how it actually does work.

An incentive is simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less of a bad thing.

To Chen's surprise, Felix and the others responded rationally. When the price of a given food rose, the monkeys bought less of it, and when the price fell, they bought more. The most basic law of economics—that the demand curve slopes downward—held for monkeys as well as humans.

There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral. Very often a single incentive scheme will include all three varieties. Think about the anti-smoking campaign of recent years. The addition of a $3-per-pack "sin tax" is a strong economic incentive

For every clever person who goes to the trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there is an army of people, clever and otherwise, who will inevitably spend even more time trying to beat it. Cheating may or may not be human nature, but it is certainly a prominent feature in just about every human endeavor. Cheating is a primordial economic act: getting more for less.

So if sumo wrestlers, schoolteachers, and day-care parents all cheat, are we to assume

Steven D. Levitt

people respond to incentives—

Most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others'. This doesn't make them bad people; it just makes them human.

If morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work

Las conductas social y económica, añade, «son complejas, y comprender su carácter resulta mentalmente agotador.

Steven D. Levitt

But as history clearly shows, most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others'.

As pessoas não são boas ou más. As pessoas são pessoas e, como tal, reagem a incentivos. Quase sempre os indivíduos são manipuláveis - para o bem ou para o mal -, bastando, para tanto, encontrar as alavancas certas.

Behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences.

Los padres obsesivos saben quiénes son y generalmente se sienten orgullosos de ello; los padres no obsesivos también saben quiénes son y tienden a burlarse de ellos.) La mayor

If there is one thing we've learned from a lifetime of designing and analyzing incentives, the best way to get what you want is to treat other people with decency.

is a systematic means of describing how people make decisions and how they change their minds;

If there is one mantra a Freak lives by, it is this: people respond to incentives.

Each of us develops a moral compass (some stronger than others, to be sure) as we make our way through the world. This is for the most part a wonderful thing. Who wants to live in a world where people run around with no regard for the difference between right and wrong?

Look around the world and you'll find overwhelming evidence of the herd mentality at work.

If asked how we'd behave in a situation that pits a private benefit against the greater good, most of us won't admit to favoring the private benefit. But as history clearly shows, most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others'. This doesn't make them bad people; it just makes them human.