“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” David Hume, 18th century philosopher and economist
I thought the $800 Yeti cooler, the $925 “Housedress”, and the $1,500 iMow (all featured in a recent Off Duty WSJ) were nuts and planned to write about these nutty extravagances. It’s a good thing I held my horses because today happened. Another WSJ story about the stronger- than- expected sales of the new $999 iRobot Roomba bucked me right off my high horse.
And I landed squarely on confirmation bias and endowment effect. We tend to favor information that supports our prior beliefs and actions, despite evidence to the contrary. And simply by owning an object (in my case, the Roomba vac), we value it more highly than an object we do not own (the Yeti, housedress or iMow). Once something makes your team, it’s hard to cut it from your team. But additions to the roster will likely face greater scrutiny.
My grandmother would have cut through the academic mumbo jumbo and simply said, “That’s the pot calling the kettle black.” Almost guilty as charged.