The remedy is rarely exhortation. It is a change to the situation so that the easier choice is also the better one. Every one of us runs the same shortcut, and every one of us believes we are the exception. A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with. The evidence here is thinner than the confident commentary suggests, and the honest position is a shrug with a direction of travel.
What the evidence shows
The point is not that people are foolish. The point is that loyalty is expensive, and we economise on it like everything else. The measure that matters is not what people say about loyalty but what they do when nobody is scoring. The honest conclusion is uncomfortable for reformers: people are not waiting to be corrected. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder.
