Introduction
What is important to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences may be of particular interest to managers responsible for wellness programming in the workplace.
Behavioral economist Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize for demonstrating the obvious, namely that human decision making is deeply mistaken, that people are not always rational, that we are systematically irrational. In addition, people, such as employees of large and small companies throughout America, are impatient, inconsistent, have erroneous self-control and are easily distracted by irrelevant factors.
Holy smoke. I knew it. Does the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences runner-up?
Do not take away anything from Dr. Thaler. He is a wonderful person, a great teacher, the author of numerous worthy books, including “Thrust: Improving Decisions on Health, Wealth and Happiness” (from Cass Sunstein). What else, friends say that he has a good sense of humor.
But any adult who lived on November 8 knows that a person’s making decisions, at least in America, is deeply mistaken. On that sad day, 62 979 879 (2.9 million less than for Hillary), frivolous Americans, grouped in our most retrograde states with highly flammable electoral ballots for election commissions, elected the president of the United States Donald Trump. Historians for decades, perhaps even centuries ahead, will be seen on December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, and even November 22, 1963, when they describe November 8, 2016 as America’s most pitiful and destructive Day of Shame - ever.
Thus, most of us who did not vote for Trump should not be reminded that making decisions in public is deeply mistaken, that people are not always rational or that we are systematically irrational. It's damn obvious.
American workplace and well-being lessons
Workplace health improvement focused on training and motivating employees to contain the ever-increasing costs of health care through testing and programming prevention. Some attention was paid to teaching health promotion skills, especially in physical areas of exercise, nutrition, emotional control, etc. But little attention was paid to the kinds of mental skills that earned Richard Thaler the Nobel Prize in economics. How about a new priority for wellness? works, rarely, directing employees to recognize and avoid common weaknesses in human reasoning?
In the column entitled “The Art of Thinking,” David Brooks welcomes the Nobel Prize winner, inviting us to thank him and others (my attention) for helping us learn more about the prejudices and anomalies that distort our perception and thinking.
Here is a list of Thaler economists, a list of distortions that lead to decisions, usually not in our interests. Teachers working in this field should come to the forefront of lectures and workshops in the workplace to understand this dynamic:
- The way a choice is made has a negative impact on our actions. For example, a patient is more likely to choose a procedure if it is presented with a 95 percent chance of success than if she said that she has a 5 percent chance of failure.
- Actions are directed more for bonding purposes than searching for truth. We want to be loved, socially approved by our tribe. We act accordingly, sometimes losing opportunities as a result of excessive dependence on this unrecognized reserve.
- Emotions will prevail over thought processes. Any hot head could tell you that.
- Judgments are usually heavily weighted by the most recent information received or the simplest that is easiest to remember.
- Most people are likely to adhere to the status quo, even if there are big benefits from change, which is associated with low costs.
Summary
What effect can false arguments have on society, besides an accidental national catastrophe, such as the election of Donald Trump, whom Sam Harris called a rework of everything that does not correspond to the American character?
Well, it means that we all have every opportunity to distinguish truth from lies, reliable against fake news or wanting to give up mistakes, destroy prejudices and greet new truths with joy. (Last words from Robert Green Ingersoll My Creed.)
In addition, burdened with erroneous reasoning, we work with disabilities to understand from a corporate point of view, competition in objective terms.
In addition to the interests of companies in that employees adapt to the skills of reasoning in the working environment, all employees working at work and outside work, have the opportunity to recognize the irrationality by themselves and others. Since citizens urged to make a choice in the ballot box, the quality of mental functioning, highlighted by the Nobel economist Richard Thaler, are of great importance both for the quality of our life and for the health of our country.
Be a winner, a happy person, a best friend and a patriot who vote wisely. Discover the nuances of critical thinking and, if given the opportunity to present them in the workplace and elsewhere, go for it.
Be healthy, think straight and look at the bright side of life.
