Guides

Preference Malleability & Context

12 free guides in this category.

Guides in this category.

How first numbers quietly steer your judgments and choices, even when they shouldn’t.

How describing the same quality in positive versus negative terms sways our judgments and decisions.

The paradoxical effect where having too many options leads to decision paralysis, lower satisfaction, and regret.

Our initial choices are often random, but our subsequent choices are logically consistent with that first arbitrary decision.

Our preferences for an option can flip depending on whether we see it alone or next to alternatives, a bias driven by what's easiest to compare.

Our tendency to treat money differently depending on its source or intended use, leading to irrational financial decisions.

Our choices between two options can flip depending on whether we are asked to choose one or assign a value to each.

The tendency to incorrectly assume that our future preferences and feelings will be the same as our current ones.

Learn to identify how the presentation of choices subtly influences your decisions.

The tendency to favor an intermediate option in a set, avoiding choices that are perceived as extreme.

Adding an inferior option to a choice set can shift preferences between the original options, violating rational choice assumptions.

Our choices are often built in the moment based on context, rather than being drawn from stable, pre-existing desires.