The mind that evolved for small groups and immediate dangers is now asked to manage a pension. It does its best. The textbook treats choice as a preference to be revealed. In practice it is a story we tell ourselves after the fact. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder. The usual story is that we are careless calculators. The better story is that we are careful about the wrong things.
The cost of being right
Notice how rarely anyone is argued out of the receipt, and how often they are simply moved past it by a change in circumstance. Put a number on choice and it becomes a target; put a target on it and the number stops meaning what it meant. The mind that evolved for small groups and immediate dangers is now asked to manage a pension. It does its best. The remedy is rarely exhortation. It is a change to the situation so that the easier choice is also the better one.
