English assignment, argument

People Like You More Than You Think; A behavioral economist answers questions on making friends, sliding-scale pricing and buying a new car Ariely, Dan . Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]05 Sep 2019.

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FULL TEXT PHOTO: Ruth Gwily

Hi, Dan.

I started college a couple of weeks ago, and I find myself very preoccupied about whether the people I'm meeting

like me. Do you have any advice about how I can relax around people? —Bronwyn

You will be relieved to know that most of us tend to underestimate how much people enjoy our company. In 2018,

Erica J. Boothby and colleagues published a paper about the "liking gap"—the difference between how much we

think other people like us and how much they actually like us. In one of their studies, they asked first-year college

students to rate how much they liked a given roommate and how much they believed their roommates liked them,

starting in September and continuing throughout the school year.

They found that participants systematically underestimated how much they were liked. In fact, it wasn't until May,

after living together for eight months, that people accurately perceived how much they were liked. So try to focus

your social energy on spending quality time with friends and don't worry too much about the outcome.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What are your tips for making friends in a new environment? Join the conversation below.

Dear Dan,

I work for a nonprofit organization that offers mindfulness retreats for teens. Our tuition model is that we request

1% of a family's income, up to $2,000, for a week-long retreat. We feel that this model is fair, but some higher-

income families object to paying more than others for the same service. Why do they feel this way, when the cost

is such a small share of their income? —Tom

Our perception of what is fair depends to a large degree on what we're being asked to give up to achieve a fair

outcome. In your arrangement, people with more money are being asked to pay more, so they are likely to see a

fixed price for tuition as being more fair than a sliding scale—and vice versa for families with less money.

One way to try to overcome this bias is what the political philosopher John Rawls called the "veil of ignorance." In

this approach, people are asked to design an imaginary society they will have to live in, without knowing whether

they are going to be rich or poor. This means that they have to decide what is fair before they know how much they

will personally stand to gain or lose from any given arrangement—for instance, the tax rate. Maybe you can try an

exercise of this sort related to tuition as part of your mindfulness teaching.

Hi, Dan.

I have an aging but perfectly fine car and waste a lot of time pining for something more modern and comfortable.

But I haven't found a new model I love, and with technological improvements happening so fast, cars are getting

better every year. Should I wait for the perfect car to come along or should I compromise and buy something now?

—Alex

My sense is that if you don't like any of the available options, it means you're not yet ready to make a change.

Happiness isn't just about what we have and don't have; it's also about not constantly looking for something

better. Why don't you decide that you won't look at new cars for a certain period—say, two years—and then give

yourself a three-month window to research a purchase. At the end of that time, you will pick the best option

available. This way, you won't waste time and energy on an open-ended search.

Credit: By Dan Ariely DETAILS

LINKS

People: Ariely, Dan Rawls, John

Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.

Publication year: 2019

Publication date: Sep 5, 2019

column: Ask Ariely

Section: Life

Publisher: Dow Jones &Company Inc

Place of publication: New York, N.Y.

Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.

Publication subject: Business And Economics

e-ISSN: 25749579

Source type: Newspapers

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 2284732411

Document URL: https://ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspa

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Copyright: Copyright 2019 Dow Jones &Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Last updated: 2019-09-07

Database: U.S. Major Dailies

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