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How to Spend Your Time and Money Better (with Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler)

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How to Spend Your Time and Money Better (with Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler)

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

2025/09/22
The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

2025/09/22
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

We all behave irrationally. We pay for expensive gym memberships and only go once. We spend windfall cash on things we'd never buy with our salaries. We plan to do nice things in the distant future, but don't actually write them down in our calendars. Thes...

Highlights

This episode explores the fascinating gap between how we think we make decisions and how we actually do—revealing that irrationality isn’t random noise, but a predictable, patterned feature of human behavior.
03:07
The Winner's Curse originated from Thaler's 1980s columns on economic anomalies inspired by Daniel Kahneman
06:04
They replicated all studies, and the findings are robust.
08:52
The winner's curse occurs when the highest bidder overpays and loses money in common-value auctions
11:46
To avoid the winner's curse, bid less when there are more bidders
17:27
Offers under 20% in the ultimatum game are often rejected, showing people aren't purely rational
29:30
Status quo bias can be used for good, such as changing the default in retirement plans to increase enrollment
32:21
Changing the default for retirement plan enrollment increased participation from 50% to 90%
47:11
The 'Save More Tomorrow' program tripled savings rates by linking automatic increases to pay raises
49:54
People are more likely to buy convertibles on sunny days, not considering future weather conditions

Chapters

How did a Nobel-winning idea about irrationality begin?
00:00
What changed—and what stayed the same—in the new edition of 'The Winner's Curse'?
06:04
Why does the 'homo economicus' model fail to describe real people?
08:52
What really happens when you win an auction—and why does it hurt?
11:46
When do people choose fairness over money—and what makes cooperation stick?
17:27
Why do we value what we own more than what we don’t—and how does that shape our choices?
26:15
How can sticking with the default actually improve our lives?
32:21
Why do we keep postponing tomorrow’s needs—and how can we save ourselves from ourselves?
35:54
What tricks do our brains play when imagining future happiness?
49:54

Transcript

Laurie Santos: This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. The Happiness Lab is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. It feels good to be understood. Amica goes above and beyond to customize the right coverage for you by taking the time to really understa...