People often 'miswant.' They buy goods that do not make them happy and refuse to buy goods that would make their lives better. In The Price of Happiness, Cass R. Sunstein focuses on people's 'willingness to pay,' which is the foundation for free markets. He argues that willingness to pay deserves respect, and high honors in the annals of history, when buyers know what they are getting. It's when buyers lack information, or suffer from behavioral biases, that they might miswant. Special conundrums also arise when we try to monetize goods we don't normally consider in monetary terms, like pristine areas, human dignity, and social media. Exploring behavioral biases and their effect on human welfare, Sunstein shows how behavioral economics can be used to increase human happiness.
The general diffusion of any interesting idea is liable to generate a penumbra of popular misunderstandings and false assumptions, no matter how careful are those who promulgate that idea. The claim that increases in national income per head, beyond a certain minimum level, will give rise to no increase in human happin...
I. Steedman· The Practices of Happiness· 0 citations
Morality is often measured in dollars and cents. Economic games and charitable giving tasks frame giving money to strangers as moral and keeping money as selfish. This ‘pay-to-play’ paradigm has grown popular with the rise of online experiments, yet its underlying assumptions often go untested. Here, we present data...
Ryan W. Carlson, M. J. Crockett· Open Mind· 2 citations
This essay investigates Kant’s various reasons for pessimism about happiness. I argue that some of Kant’s concerns about whether (or to what extent) happiness is possible for us are more pressing than others, and some can be more easily mitigated. Moreover, although he tends to emphasize the difficulties in securing...
A. Baxley· Canadian Journal of Philosop...· 0 citations
A revelation of the invisible forces shaping your spending habits, from impulse buys to brand loyalty.
Have you ever questioned your sanity after looking at all those unnecessary things you bought after a late night online shopping spree? Or worse still, have no recollection of buying them at all?
From the supermarke...
