Friday, June 14, 2013

How Do We Make Choices?

Why do I read some news articles and not others?  Why do you read this blog (and whatever others that you read)?  Why do I live where I live?  Of course, once I start pondering on a question, a search on the net produces some interesting results.

Daily Good has an article on the psychology of choice.
Why are you reading this? How did you decide to click the link, load the page and stay? How do we decide to do anything at all and, out of the myriad choices we face each day, what makes one option more preferable over another? This is one of the most fundamental questions of the social sciences, from consumer psychology to economic theory to behavioral science.
http://www.dailygood.org/2011/10/10/the-psychology-of-choice-5-perspectives/

If you haven't the interest or time to read the full article, they do suggest several books that cover the topic (one of which I'm downloading to my Nook as I write so I might read it on the plane to Kentucky):

How We Decide  by Jonah Lehrer
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar      

I'm intrigued!
                          

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