How To Work Around Your Own Irrationality | Richard Thaler
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode explores how to make the infernally difficult challenge of habit formation a little easier, with guest Richard H. Thaler, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2017 for his pioneering work in the fields of behavioral economics and finance. Thaler is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Decision Research. He is also the co-author, with Cass R. Sunstein, of Nudge: the Final Edition.
In this episode, Dan and Richard discuss what a nudge is as well as its opposite – which Thaler and Sunstein call sludge. They also discuss other fascinating concepts, including: choice architecture, mental accounting, libertarian paternalism, bounded rationality, and how the lessons of behavioral economics can lead to a happier life
The Anti-Diet Challenge kicks off today in the Ten Percent Happier app. If you're not already a Ten Percent Happier subscriber, you can join us by starting a free trial that'll give you access to the challenge, along with our entire app. Click here to get started.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% Happier Podcast. |
| 0:05.9 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:08.3 | Hello, today it's an episode all about how to make the infernally difficult challenge |
| 0:15.8 | of habit formation a little bit easier. |
| 0:19.2 | As many of you know, you may have heard me say this before, evolution did not bequeath |
| 0:23.8 | modern humans a mind that is particularly good at behavior change. |
| 0:28.5 | Our racing minds are good at scanning for threats, food and mates, but not so good at consistently |
| 0:34.4 | flossing our teeth or whatever. |
| 0:36.7 | This may sound pessimistic, but knowing this brute fact that we're not really wired for |
| 0:41.5 | easy adoption of long-term healthy habits, knowing that can be liberating. |
| 0:47.0 | It can free you up from any internal storytelling you might be doing about how you are uniquely |
| 0:51.5 | dysfunctional when it comes to adopting healthy habits or breaking unhealthy ones. |
| 0:57.2 | This episode is a little bit different from our usual fare. |
| 0:59.6 | We often talk here about the downsides of technology, but in today's episode we're going to |
| 1:04.8 | offer a more optimistic counterpoint. |
| 1:07.5 | My guest is Richard H. Thaler. |
| 1:09.6 | He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences back in 2017 for his pioneering work in the |
| 1:14.6 | fields of behavioral economics and finance. |
| 1:17.7 | He is the Charles R. Walgreens Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and |
| 1:22.8 | Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, where he is the director |
| 1:27.4 | of the Center for Decision Research. |
| 1:30.8 | He is the co-author alongside Cass Sunstein of a book called Nudge, The Final Edition. |
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