I couldn't imagine what the start of the new academic year would be like! Many changes here, new colleagues who trust me to know everything (I don't), new students, old students, old cases that pop up. This year I also teach first-year students, which is strange, because it means I have to train them to do things in certain ways, while next year I have to tell them to forget I ever said so.... On the other hand I can look into buzz-marketing and viral-marketing, subjects that fascinate me.
Recently I talked with some students about decision making, and how hard it is for us to dedice rationally. All decisions we make seem to be emotional decisions.
Even when we buy expensive objects, our final decision is emotional. If you happen not ot believe me, look at the stats: Last year the sale of cabriolet cars went up about 15%. In the Netherlands..... That small country where it rains every other day. Very rational, huh....
Even more illustrative is our perception of safety. Most people I know drive a car (except me, I even don't have a license). Everybody is happy that cars are so much safer to day, with airbags, ABS and stuff like that. "Every airbag enhances the safety of the vehicle."
But does it?
The safest car I can imagine would be a car that never would be in an accident. You have to agree on that, don't you?
So which car is hardly ever involved in an accident, and which car is at the top of the list?
Well, I am afraid that at the top of the list are cars that do have airbags as wel as ABS, underneath that are cars that have either airbags or ABS....
Apparently all those systems make us go faster a little bit.
So, in fact, all those systems that are meant to make us safer, actually are the source of more accidents.
So which cars in fact are the safest? Well, one that was hardly ever involved in an accident was the Citroën 2CV (Citroen Deux-Chevaux, 'the tin snail', 'the duck' or 'the ugly duck').
People who ever drove one, will agree they never had an accident with it. Why? Well, you watch out, because it is a cute car, but you definitely don't want to be in an accident with it! So you go in lengths ot prevent it. You take your own responsability, instead of letting the car do that for you!
Does this have to do anything with decision making? Oh yes. If we argue rationally, we discovered that car which is perceived as being unsafe, in fact is the safest car. So what if we enhance that fact, and substitute the airbag at the driver seat with a steel pin? It would be there, waiting for you from behind the steering wheel, pointing at you. And you wouldn't be in any accident, would you? Which is very very safe.
Rational people would vote for a political party, that would promote binding installation of such a pin, in every car.
Sometimes I actually think it would be better if wouldn't base our decisions on emotional reasons. Apparently we are a sentimental lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment