The textbook treats pride as a preference to be revealed. In practice it is a story we tell ourselves after the fact. Every one of us runs the same shortcut, and every one of us believes we are the exception. Institutions know all this, of course, which is why the empty diary is so rarely left to chance. A better account of pride would begin with the ordinary case rather than the laboratory one.
What the evidence shows
What looks like pride from the outside is usually something simpler from the inside: tiredness, a deadline, a wish not to look foolish. There is a version of this essay that ends with a policy prescription. This is not that version; the mechanism is interesting enough on its own. The remedy is rarely exhortation. It is a change to the situation so that the easier choice is also the better one. If you want to see pride at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one.
