Incentives Lecture

Despite the fact that I was confused by some of the terminology in this lecture, I found it to be very interesting. I particularly like learning about the concept that losses loom larger that gains. The example that losing money is more dissatisfying than gaining money is satisfying, is used. In the book, Influential Mind, I recognized that Sharot suggests similar findings. She discusses how as humans we will often try to avoid any negative or undesirable information even when it can be helpful. Sharot uses the example of a person who is at risk for disease choosing not to get tested because of the possibility of a negative outcome. I think this concept provides insight as to why people hold themselves back sometimes as they want to avoid any negative emotions. Furthermore, fear is not as an effective of a motivator as positivity, such as offering rewards.

           In addition, I enjoyed learning about delay discounting and preference reversal. This is the idea that people often prefer to wait for something if the future incentive is better. Nonetheless, at a certain point people rather just take the lower incentive than delay it any longer. Thus, this shows that the desire for specific incentives can be sensitive to time.