dbaupp comments on Rational Romantic Relationships, Part 1: Relationship Styles and Attraction Basics - Less Wrong

48 Post author: lukeprog 05 November 2011 11:06AM

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Comment author: lionhearted 06 November 2011 12:58:16AM 7 points [-]

Perhaps this behavior is less common among women who would rather have a 15% chance of $1,000,000 than a certainty of $500 (because most random women I've tested choose the certain $500, but every single woman in our community that I've asked, regardless of math level or wealth level or economic literacy or their performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test, takes the 15% chance of $1M.)

Whoa. A majority of people choose $500 in EV instead of $150,000?

That's scary. Have you written about this before? If not, care to give us rough numbers of how many people you've talked to about it? That blows my mind that a majority of people wouldn't get it when it's so far apart.

Comment author: dbaupp 06 November 2011 01:22:03AM 3 points [-]

I would suggest that it is very easy to concentrate on the 85% chance of getting nothing, and so ignore the difference in EV.

Comment author: lionhearted 06 November 2011 01:42:29AM 3 points [-]

Indeed yeah. But we're not talking $500 vs. $900, we're talking orders of magnitude...