Dan Ariely has really opened my eyes. He's made many of the people in class realize a very odd sounding, but actually realistic idea, that people are not in control of their own decisions, which sounds crazy, but when I took the time to listen to him, I started to actually make sense of what he was saying.
Ariely said "Because we don't really know what our preferences are, we susceptible to all of these influences from the external forces". We don't know what our preferences because throughout life we as humans are told how to feel about certain issues, and topics to where it seems that these outside forces decided for us without us hearing because it's just what comes to our mind, kind of almost as if it were a pop quiz, when you know the answer, you just answer it, you don't need to contemplate for a long time, and even if we're talking about a decision that would mean a lot of contemplation, in the end, the decision made is still because of what we're told to make.
Since this affects everyone, we must accept the kind of creepy but realistic realization of what decision making really is, because it's just something that cannot be avoided.
Ariely said "Because we don't really know what our preferences are, we susceptible to all of these influences from the external forces". We don't know what our preferences because throughout life we as humans are told how to feel about certain issues, and topics to where it seems that these outside forces decided for us without us hearing because it's just what comes to our mind, kind of almost as if it were a pop quiz, when you know the answer, you just answer it, you don't need to contemplate for a long time, and even if we're talking about a decision that would mean a lot of contemplation, in the end, the decision made is still because of what we're told to make.
Since this affects everyone, we must accept the kind of creepy but realistic realization of what decision making really is, because it's just something that cannot be avoided.