Content tagged with "behavioral-economics"

Risk Compensation: Why We’re Not As Safe as We Feel
Blog Post
September 23, 2014
431

Another note from Jeff Speck’s book: risk homeostasis, or risk compensation. Risk compensation is a theory which suggests that people typically adjust their behavior in response to the perceived level of risk, becoming more careful where they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more…

Road Capacity, Traffic Problems, and Induced Demand
Blog Post
September 20, 2014
416

I’m reading Walkable City, by Jeff Speck . In it, he talks of “induced demand,” which he says is the thing that everyone in city planning understands but doesn’t talk about. Basically, if you build it, they will come. He mentions a meta-study called “Build More Highways, Get More Traffic” by Randy…

Rules Are Rules
Personal Blog
Blog Post
March 5, 2011
849

I’ve been thinking a quite a bit lately about consequences, and how today’s society tries to qualify everything – “well, I know it was against the rules, BUT…” Brigham Young University recently dismissed a star player from their basketball team. Brandon Davies was kicked off the team because he…

Why Money Can Kill Motivation
Personal Blog
Blog Post
January 2, 2012
275

The Overjustification Effect: This is a good distillation of what motivates us, and why money isn’t always a good motivator. According to the research, in modern America the average income required to be happy day-to-day, to experience “emotional well being” is about $75,000 a year. According to the…