Predictably Irrational - Chapter 4: The Cost of Social Norms

Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
Chapter 4
The Cost of Social Norms

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Behavioral
• Economics
• Psychology
• Science
• Predictably
• Irrational

[Yamikaiba123]

@Porojukaha But when you're dealing with objects, the hard value of the object is abstracted, and it no longer feels like a bribe, or something you want to exchange for affection.

[Yamikaiba123]

@Porojukaha Good comments. I think the reason there's a negative connotation with giving a love interest money is that it would be too associated with a bribe. It's the same thing that Dan was talking about with people treat objects as opposed to money when dealing with it dishonestly. There's a stigma around hard cash that's hard to get away from. People don't want to steal money because they'll feel like a thief, and don't want to give money to not treat the other as a prostitute.

[Porojukaha]

@Yamikaiba123 you may also prefer money because you are at a stage in your life where you are very self focused and have a great need for money. For example, college students very frequently have this preference because they are poor with big bills and also because they are so worried and taken up with the decisions that will shape their lives that they have little time and energy left to worry about others, especially when important people in their lives are not in such critical times.

[Porojukaha]

@FenderGibsonWashburn money cannot buy happiness. Effective social interaction CAN, however, provide happiness. Thats why its worth more. In the the end we dont care about money. we care about happiness. Without money, its hard to be happy (ask any starving african child how happy he is) but once you have a certain level of necessity and comfort fulfilled money completely loses its ability to provide happiness. However, you can never have too much love.

[Porojukaha]

@Yamikaiba123 you probably also prefer money because of the propensity for others to choose something that is NOT what you want. A phenomenon which is very common in our day because of the sheer number of possible gifts, and the lack of personal knowledge we tend to have about people in our families. Often, instead of getting a gift that will really mean something to them, we just get them what is convenient for us. So our positive recognition becomes a display of a lack of time/thought/effort

[Porojukaha]

@Yamikaiba123 I bet you dont ALWAYS prefer money to a gift. You see, a gift shows you the person cares about you. So from your parents, obviously money is better, because you already have so much evidence that they care about you that recieving a gift is nearly meaningless. However, if you were to recieve a gift, instead of money, from a romantic interest of yours, you would certainly prefer the gift to the money because of the meaning it carried with it. the money in that case would confuse you

[Porojukaha]

@Yamikaiba123 and the funny thing is. That if you give them the cheap present. They will love you and think your present is great. But if you give them the cash, which actually costs you more, they will think you are a cheap bastard. I think the reason for this is that they are not looking for financial recognition, but social recognition. The present is proof you care about them. Its about the time and mental effort you spent picking it out, not the amount of money you spent.

[Yamikaiba123]

@Yamikaiba123 My point is that gifts have an inflated value. When they would have been otherwise worthless, or of little interest to us, now they become an appreciated item. So when I want to be cheap, I buy someone a gift. When I want to be dear (oddly enough, the only antonym of cheap that I can find on the internet to fit the context, if I understand it correctly), I give them cash.

[Yamikaiba123]

@shanemccurdy I also judge myself as being cheap when I buy gifts for someone instead of giving them money; since I know that the gift distracts them from the actual worth of the item. For example, when my grandparents give me a piggy-bank, it goes on my dresser. When my grandparents give me money, I save it, or go out and spend it on some work-related item or piece of entertainment. I don't go out and buy a piggy-bank.

[Yamikaiba123]

@shanemccurdy Hmm, I appreciate money gifts more than anything else, though, since I can get whatever I want with it. But overall, the non-monetary economy that goes on between friends still stands- I won't pretend to be entirely rational. I am the kind of person who thinks certain things over that others would find pointless. Call it obsessively analytical.s