Tag Archives: Irrationality

Like me

Posted on September 17, 2021 by koenfucius

(featured image: Goran Has/Flickr CC BY 2.0) Is it irrational to favour people with whom you have something important in common? Imagine the prime minister of your country is not someone you naturally align with: in fact, you’d rather see … Continue reading →

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Unbound your rationality (for better decisions)

Posted on March 12, 2021 by koenfucius

(featured image: Mussi Katz/Flickr CC BY) The bounds to our rationality are sometimes within our control and even self-imposed – an easy opportunity to improve our decisions? How irrational are we really? Book titles like Predictably Irrational and The Upside … Continue reading →

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The immaterial economy

Posted on January 12, 2018 by koenfucius

(featured image credit: torstensimon) The peculiarly human nature of economics On Wednesday 10 January Philip Hammond, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, and his cabinet colleague David Davis, the secretary for Exiting the EU, flew to Germany. The aim of their … Continue reading →

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Misunderstanding rationality

Posted on June 23, 2017 by koenfucius

(Featured image credit: Les Colporteurs CC0) It is tempting to equate ‘rational’ with ‘right’, and ‘irrational’ with ‘wrong’, but that is mistaken The lottery is sometimes called a tax on the stupid. The logic behind this opinion is that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioural economics, Cognitive biases and fallacies, Economics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The irrationality of charity

Posted on February 17, 2017 by koenfucius

Featured image: Howard Lake/Flickr When charitable donations are concerned, we seem to be even more irrational than otherwise What is an acceptable salary for a CEO who works in the charity sector? For the Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, £200,000 would … Continue reading →

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Confessions of an irrational behaviouralist

Posted on January 13, 2017 by koenfucius

Cognitive illusions cloud your judgement – and mine – when it comes to spending (featured image credit: daezho/pixabay) In December of last year, United Airlines, one of the largest US carriers, announced that they would be charging passengers for using … Continue reading →

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