Just Out
A frequent fear we confront psychologically is that of losing things. We are mentally wired to worry about losing what we have more than to aspire to gaining something new. This powerful mental force has been verified in research time and again—it even appears to be a motivation in other animals. Anyone who has watched a dog protect a stick or chew toy from another one that wants it has witnessed loss aversion in other species.
Fear of losing something we have also works as a fear of missing an opportunity. Marketers have been aware of this for eons. It is what makes sales events for limited quantities, limited time periods, and under various other creatively invented restrictions effective: they suspend our desire to get the lowest prices. Marketers use these tactics because they work.
Scarcity is something we observe by more than just counting. It bothers us profoundly, whether or not the object in question is essential to our survival. Our perceptions are more important to us than the reality. Thus, a rare, vintage postage stamp is all the more valuable if it resulted from a manufacturing error. The item with a manufacturing defect is of greater value than the flawless version—but not for mailing anything. It has value as a unique item that belongs exclusively to the lucky collector.
In Influence, Robert Cialdini references the foundational work on the psychology of scarcity performed by economic psychologist Daniel Kahneman and psychologist Amos Tversky, who named the phenomenon “loss aversion.” We are inherently more protective of the things we have than we are motivated to acquire things of similar value that we don’t.
What applies to physical objects also applies to restrictions on our behavior. Tell people what things they are prohibited from doing and they will want to do them all the more. Tell children what things are off limits, and their minds will concentrate on wanting those things more than anything available to them. In one series of experiments, boy toddlers accompanied their mothers into a room with one accessible toy and one behind a plexiglass barrier. In one version, the toy was behind a barrier the toddlers could get around, in the other, the barriers were insurmountable. The toddlers spent more time focused on the inaccessible toy than the accessible one.
Known as reactance, this phenomenon is also at work when we are told not to do certain things—even not to think certain thoughts. The topic of book bans appears to be a recurring favorite in news reporting, and there is a fair amount of folklore about censorship. In both instances, the ultimate effect is to make people more intensely curious about the forbidden books or subjects of discussion. Similarly, most of us know from personal experience that the easiest way to get us to focus on a thought or idea is to tell us not to think about it.
Telling people what things they are allowed to think, to have, or to do is far less irksome than prohibitions or restrictions. Overt permission is less interesting to our minds that things that are off limits. Nothing is quite as appealing to us as forbidden fruit.
Good morning all
Happy Frist Day of Summer, I made a list of those things I look forward to in the summer,...flowers, sunshine, pools, flea markets, drive in theaters, cook outs/picnics...and banana splits...lol ( when I was younger, local oval track racing., amusement parks , fairs and festivals were on the list also)
Of course the down side is the days just get shorter from here on out.
My roomie is off of work till they investigate what happened, and it could take three weeks...sigh. he says he has enough to cover what he takes care of for at least three weeks...so, ok...he applied for temporary unemployment, but, not sure how that will go, or how long it will take..
Upside is maybe he will give me some help getting some stuff done at home that he has been promising me for over a year now...lol
Good morning and happy summer solstice, in a few minutes (9:57 CDT, to be exact).
Here is a classic oldie about summer, a bouncy one with great vocal harmonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_z73tVbgU&ab_channel=LegacyRecordingsVEVO
I have to admit that I never heard the lyrics properly (the accents?) and when I looked them up today, I find they are more, I guess flippant is the word, than I expected. But it was meant for a teen audience, so: https://genius.com/The-jamies-summertime-summertime-lyrics
(Both of these were a little tricky to find, as most searches for "Summertime" bring up a different song dating back much earlier, a standard with many famous covers by many famous artists.)