interesting article about economic behavior

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One thing we've been learning in the Model Thinking course is that while the simplest models of human behavior tend to assume that people behave rationally, the fact is that we often don't.

The way things are set up often make it more or less likely that we will do something.

One example was volunteering for organ donation.  We were told that in most of the European Union, people need to check a box to opt out of organ donation, but that in the United Kingdom, people need to check a box to opt in.

Want to guess about the percentages? 







It's staggering -- In the UK, 25% check the box to opt in.  In the rest of the EU, 10% check the box to opt out.

!!!!!!!!!

That's "25% are organ donors", vs "90% are organ donors"!  A huge difference!

Here's an article about various kinds of economic behavior.  (This is one of the readings for the class.)

I thought the parts about opting in or out of 401(k) plans was particularly interesting. 

And I wonder why on earth they haven't switched ALL such plans to "opt out"!  (And all check boxes for organ donation, too!  Sheesh!)

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