Swayed

Loss aversion, value attribution, force of commitment, the chameleon affect, the irrational pull of fairness, and the altruism center vs. the thrill seeking part of our brains, all prove to me that we can't always trust ourselves. Sway probably could have been a 1000 page book if they wanted to include story after story about these forces. Reading about loss aversion and the force of commitment reminds me of the incredibly bad decisions the contestants on Deal or No Deal made. When contestants reached a high dollar amount and then started to open cases that lowered their deal offer, they began to think irrationally and make poor decisions - all in the name of recouping the loss form opening that last case. Essentially, it came down to placing a bet that had horrible odds that nobody would normally make. But, the contestants on Deal or no Deal continued to do it. After being offered over $200,000, a contestant irrationally continued to open cases until they were down to the final 2 cases - $5,000 and $1. The contestant figures I already lost $200,000, what's another $5,000. When, in actuality, the contestant showed up with nothing and can go home with $2500 by taking the deal. 100% chance to make $2,500 or a 50% chance to make $5,000. In any other circumstance, the person would take the $2,500 but not on this game show.

Ran a quick 3.1 miles yesterday in around 24 minutes. I must have chosed the fast treadmill as the Nike+ sensor recorded 3.2 miles in the same time. I never really thought that the calibration of treadmills would be different from one to another. But, this does seem to be the case as everytime I run, I get different results. It also seems that the speed of the treadmill effects the Nike+ sensor as an increase in the speed on the treadmill does not give as much of an increase on the speed of the Nike+ sensor.