Comments on: Green Consumption: It’s Not All Positive

By: Green And Greedy « Green And Greedy

Green And Greedy « Green And Greedy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:20:00 +0000

[...] lines between need and greed have become blurred. We are greedy. We are self interested. So lets change the green message to something desirable and something which encourages self [...]

By: R.Sawyer

R.Sawyer — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:44:48 +0000

Hi Mr. Ariely,

I am in the middle of your book (chapter 9) about how preconceptions and emotional investment of ideas.

Many a husband has tried to tell his wife something he knows is true and she resists. Later, some 3rd person says the same thing and convinces her without a struggle.

That got me wondering about the willingness to cling to an idea in the face of contrary logic (for fairness, I am certain I do the same thing to my wife as well).

Are there any experiments out there that have tried this: Take 2 people with passionate opposing viewpoints (religion, politics, sports, the topic is not important). Have them both argue the OTHER stance to the other person. Do they change their opinion, and how long did they cling onto their own when arguing the other side? I am wondering if the emotional investment can be swapped by the actions they take.

Let me know if you have heard of such a thing. I’d be interested in the results.

Thanks!
Rus Sawyer
E.Hartford, CT

By: Joseph the Red

Joseph the Red — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:44:57 +0000

Green Consumption: It’s Not All Positive

Totally agree, I see how people get lured by the new “green” flatscreens or the new “green” mobile from a Swedish producer.

People get rid of their perfectly well functioning equipment to update to the new “green” technology, feeling that they made something positive for the environment, without considering the environmental cost of getting rid of their current equipment.

According to 60 minutes, many firms dealing with electronic waste just dump it somewhere with low cost wages and unapropriate equipment to work with it.

So much positive effect of a “green” preference

By: Brenda

Brenda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:13:02 +0000

i think this implies a marriage between the notion of “entitlement” and Thaler’s work on mental accounting. Once people have earned credits in a “good account” (health, enviroment, virtue) they “spend” their credits until the account zeros out. Then they start the process over again.
There doesn’t seem to be motivation for long term accrual – just short term accumulate and spend. I think an interesting questions is how do we get people to raise their set point so they don’t burn the credits so quickly?
For example, if I unknowingly undo each green event in my day how do I change the ratio to 2-1 (good/bad ratio) instead of 1-1 (good/bad ratio) and make this a gradual increasing ratio over time?

I think we see this in health consequences. If I eat poorly today I need to exercise tomorrow. If I exercise all week, I’m entitled to dessert and drinks on the weekend.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:41:12 +0000

I’ve seen recent buzz around the idea that willpower is a limited psychological resource (although our capacity for it increases with our exercise of it), so that people find it harder to maintain their health regimes if the demands increase in other areas of their life. Does virtue work the same way?

I guess that in each case there is some kind of psychological cost or sacrifice being made in the immediate term, in order to contribute towards a longer-term or a social good. It may be that we have personal energy budgets for this type of thing. We might choose to stretch our budgets by doing something easier (e.g. buying a green product) which buys us the goods we want in that category at a lower personal cost… my economic metaphors are slipping a bit, so I’ll stop now.

By: Selectism | Around the Web | Selectism.com

Selectism | Around the Web | Selectism.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:45:25 +0000

[...] his blog, Dan Ariely cites recent research that he says has some implications regarding ‘green’ consumption and the idea that one [...]

By: Cleve Horrocks

Cleve Horrocks — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:07:32 +0000

So what you’re telling us then is that religious leaders recommendations of prayer and scripture study first thing in the morning have a great deal of bearing on how we will act during the course of the day. That what we initially do has a bearing on what we think and say and do and the activities and decisions that we make during the course of the day. Fascinating.

By: Susan Pinochet (sdp) 's status on Monday, 21-Sep-09 17:03:14 UTC - Identi.ca

Susan Pinochet (sdp) 's status on Monday, 21-Sep-09 17:03:14 UTC - Identi.ca — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:03:30 +0000

[...] Recent behavioral history affects moral choices http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?p=675 [...]

By: Ruben Aroca

Ruben Aroca — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:03:53 +0000

Dear Dan Ariely,
My name is Ruben Aroca, I am sociologist and Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, Ecuador.
We are studying your book Predictably Irrational and in few weeks I will be at academic meeting to debate about it with my partnerts. It is a personally boldness, irrational by definition, and however and admitting that, I have two questions of my particular interest:
- I have some writings on democracy; the reason why I was interested in your book was by the analysis of the election and the election conditions. I think you don´t touch this aspect, but this is my question: the choice (election, decision) in democracy and constraints operating around for that event.
- What are your opinions about social subsidies zero cost? In the countries of my región (Latin America), much of the Contries or Nations the social subsidies are made in cash or in reducing prices of certain goods. How does this affect the exercise of citizenship?
- Finally, I would estimate your recomendations about the review of your book. Where should I put the emphasis?

Thank you for your answers.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:33:34 +0000

This is a challenging issue because unlike other findings associated with social norms and behaviour, there is no easy solution (e.g. “don’t mention that everyone is obese if you want to reduce obesity”). Clearly, we could try to make people more aware of ‘early-day’ decisions but the problem is that the kind of person most susceptible (i.e. people who have to be forced to be ‘green’) might also be the people most resistant to the kind of introspection that would help them identify early-day decisions.

P.S. love the book and your TED talk was inspirational.