Choiceology

Wharton professor Katy Milkman shares true stories involving high-stakes moments, and explores the latest research to help you make better judgments and avoid costly mistakes. 

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Behavioral Finance

Obstacle Illusions

We're wired to interpret our challenges as bigger than our advantages, even if the reality is more balanced.

April 21, 2025

Behavioral Finance

The Reality Trap

What if our biggest blind spot is thinking we don't have a blind spot?

April 07, 2025

Behavioral Finance

A Numbers Game

Why do we tend to fixate on numbers even when words or graphs represent the same information?

March 24, 2025

Behavioral Finance

A Hero's Journey

Framing the narrative of your life as an epic journey can give you control and meaning.

October 21, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Rebel With a Cause

Can resistance to authority be leveraged for positive change?

October 07, 2024

Behavioral Finance

On a High Note

Is it possible to structure our experiences to remember them more fondly?

September 23, 2024

Behavioral Finance

The Truth Is Out There

The simplest answer isn’t always the right answer, despite how much we might want it to be.

September 09, 2024

Behavioral Finance

To Know What You Know

In a great bit of irony, to truly know if you're good at something, you have to be good at it already.

August 26, 2024

Behavioral Finance

The Buddy System

Pursuing a difficult goal can be lonely work—but it doesn't always have to be.

August 12, 2024

Behavioral Finance

To Fight Another Day

Why do we tend to seek more risk in the face of losses when those losses are only on paper and aren't yet finalized?

June 03, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Choiceology's Guide to Better Decisions

What are some strategies that can help you mitigate cognitive biases and make better decisions?

May 20, 2024

Behavioral Finance

The Charmer's Playbook

Why do we allow our judgments of one trait of a person (or product or company) to overly influence our judgments of another, unrelated trait of that same person or product or company?

May 06, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Recipe for Success

How do strict and relaxed cultures affect the quality of our decisions? And how can you find the sweet spot between the two, depending on your goals?

April 22, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Take the Deal!

Daniel Kahneman explains why risky propositions tend to look different when you’re already behind.

April 08, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Top of Mind

Why do we weigh recent events so heavily? And how does this tendency impact important decisions, like whom to vote for or how to conduct medical procedures?

March 25, 2024

Behavioral Finance

Repeat After Me

Why is it that when we see the same statement multiple times, we are more likely to believe it's true?

March 11, 2024

Behavioral Finance

A Sticky Situation

Friction gets in the way of behavior—and it can become "sludge" when it's used to prevent you from reaching a goal.

October 23, 2023

Behavioral Finance

Jumping to Conclusions

Why do people tend to over-respond to weak signals and under-respond to strong ones?

October 09, 2023

Behavioral Finance

No Mean Feat

Performances often rise and fall, but how and why do they usually regress to a mean?

September 25, 2023

Behavioral Finance

A Cup of Knowledge

Why do people think they understand things better than they actually do?

September 11, 2023

Behavioral Finance

The Golden Misfits

Grouping choices together so that you make a bunch of selections all at once can seem daunting, but it can help you reach your goals faster.

August 28, 2023

Behavioral Finance

An Accidental Experiment

How can events outside of our control create opportunities for accidental insights?

August 14, 2023

Behavioral Finance

The Superforecasters

Are there proven ways to improve our predictions?

June 05, 2023

Behavioral Finance

Survey Says

One of the most common mistakes we make with data involves choosing the wrong population to study.

May 22, 2023

Behavioral Finance

Brave on the Waves

How can you strike the right balance between risk tolerance and risk aversion, and why do women and men so often view risk differently?

April 24, 2023

Behavioral Finance

Fan Fictions

How can feeling connected to someone who is essentially a stranger impact your decision-making?

April 10, 2023

Behavioral Finance

The Beanie Bandwagon

How can the fear of missing out on a trend have lasting consequences?

March 27, 2023

Behavioral Finance

The Power of Do-Overs

When faced with a challenging goal, is it better to give yourself some slack?

March 13, 2023

Behavioral Finance

Mesmerized

Why is it so difficult to separate correlation from causation?

November 07, 2022

Behavioral Finance

The Bad with the Good

Why do some people use "good" behavior to justify "bad" behavior?

October 24, 2022

Behavioral Finance

So Much in Common

Why do we often mistake the root causes of our feelings and other experiences?

September 26, 2022

Behavioral Finance

How You Spend It

In the tradeoff between time and money, which choice usually leads to greater happiness?

September 12, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Not by a Long Shot

Why do we have trouble estimating the odds of rare events?

August 29, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Fail Better

Does failure really improve our ability to learn?

August 15, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Under Pressure

How can we make important decisions when time is scarce and the stakes are high?

May 23, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Out of Proportion

Non-proportional thinking, or focusing on absolute numbers rather than percentages, is just one way we get mixed up when we should be carefully calculating and comparing ratios.

May 09, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Choiceology's Guide to Nudges

Nudges are small but powerful parts of choice architecture.

April 25, 2022

Behavioral Finance

More Than a Feeling

How can the general mood around us affect our behavior?

April 11, 2022

Behavioral Finance

First Impressions

When we judge someone, rarely do we stop to consider how their particular situation likely played a large role in guiding their actions.

March 28, 2022

Behavioral Finance

Less Is More

When attempting to solve a problem, why do people tend to add something rather than subtract?

March 14, 2022

Behavioral Finance

The Power of Negative Thinking

Anticipating and planning for obstacles can sometimes be more powerful than adopting a positive mindset.

October 25, 2021

Behavioral Finance

The Good Fight

How can you leverage constructive conflict without feeling like disagreements are personal?

October 11, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Expect the Unexpected

Despite their regularity, we don't tend to budget well for the high frequency of unexpected events that predictably arise when it comes to our time, our diet, or our money.

September 27, 2021

Behavioral Finance

What's the Big Idea?

We often overestimate our abilities and the accuracy of our predictions. Is it better to have well-calibrated confidence beliefs?

September 13, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Not Just Another Statistic

Why are we more motivated by individuals and their stories rather than large numbers or statistical information?

August 30, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Big Goals, Little Steps

Breaking down a goal into smaller steps could help you achieve your goals.

August 16, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Scientist Mode

How can thinking like a scientist improve your everyday decisions?

May 24, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Silver Linings

How can disappointing outcomes lead to surprising opportunities?

May 10, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Hold That Thought

Forgetting can be a significant barrier to achievement with real consequences. How can reminders help improve our memory?

April 26, 2021

Behavioral Finance

In the Face of Risk

The way we perceive the probability of rare events often changes as we acquire direct experience—but are the new perceptions more accurate?

April 12, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Mindful of Mindsets

How can our expectations and mindset have a positive effect on our health and our lives?

March 29, 2021

Behavioral Finance

Some Assembly Preferred

There is a real sense of satisfaction that comes with building something yourself. But can that lead to us overvaluing what we create?

March 15, 2021

Behavioral Finance

If Only …

You wouldn't be human if you didn't have at least some regrets. The trick is knowing when (and how) to let things go—and when to use regret productively.

October 12, 2020

Behavioral Finance

I Don’t Want to Know

Have you ever ignored unpleasant information, hoping it would just go away?

September 28, 2020

Behavioral Finance

A Successful Failure

Using a checklist—it's such a simple idea, but it's one of the best ways to bring order to complexity and achieve results.

September 14, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Fair Is Fair

It's hard to be objective about fairness—because what seems fair so often depends on your reference points.

August 31, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Spoiled for Choice

While having a myriad of options is a privilege consumers increasingly expect, too much choice often leads to dissatisfaction and regret.

August 17, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Bidder Beware

Suppose you just won a hotly contested auction. How likely is it that you got a good deal?

May 11, 2020

Behavioral Finance

A Choice Apart

Making a decision in isolation—versus in a comparison—relies on different processes and tends to produce different results.

April 27, 2020

Behavioral Finance

So Close to the Prize

Whatever the goal, we often increase our level of effort when the finish line seems near. How can we make the most of this tendency?

April 13, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Coping Amid the Crisis

What can behavioral science teach us about managing the emotional toll of the coronavirus pandemic?

April 06, 2020

Behavioral Finance

The Simple Choice

Making the beneficial choice the easiest choice can streamline decision-making. But be aware of exactly who's benefitting.

March 20, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Judge the Judges

The chance variability of human judgment is a widespread, costly problem—and one that can be measured even when the supposed correct answer isn't known.

March 16, 2020

Behavioral Finance

Creatures of Habit

Small repeated behaviors can have an outsize impact on your success, health, and happiness.

November 18, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Invisible Failures

Concentrating only on successes—the things that survive some selection process—often leads to faulty conclusions.

November 04, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Your Own Advice

When it comes to advice, it just might be better to give than to receive.

October 07, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Not Quite Enough

A lack of resources can constrain your ability to make the best choices in life. But surprisingly, there are advantages to scarcity in some contexts.

September 23, 2019

Behavioral Finance

The Lucky Loonie

Some things are simply beyond our control. And while a little luck never hurts, it's best to understand what your behaviors can truly affect.

September 09, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Best-Laid Plans

Why do we forget the lessons of past projects and underestimate the time, costs and risks of future actions?

May 27, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Boxed In

One of the most common mental shortcuts we commit is making snap judgments about people and things based on limited information.

May 13, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Knew It All Along

Hindsight is 20/20, the saying goes. But occurrences that appear inevitable after the fact rarely seemed so in real time.

April 29, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Hitting Your Number

Round-number goals are arbitrary but effective.

April 01, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Out of Focus

People overlook important information—even when it's easily accessible or, in hindsight, downright obvious.

March 18, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Love the Mug You’re With

It's a bias that's been observed for perhaps thousands of years, a tendency to overvalue what we already possess.

February 18, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Data for the Win

Where analytical models and algorithms outperform human judgment, it's still so tempting to just go with your gut.

February 04, 2019

Behavioral Finance

The Mystery of Chance

We're wired to search for order in the world. It's how we learn and construct meaning. But often we see patterns in mere happenstance.

January 21, 2019

Behavioral Finance

A Clean Slate

How you divide your money and time is influenced by a cognitive bias—but it's one that you can put to good use.

January 07, 2019

Behavioral Finance

Happiness

Giving: It's one simple behavior that's been shown to increase happiness.

December 10, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Everybody's Doing It

You're an independent-minded person. You make choices for yourself based on the best information available. You own your decisions, right or wrong. Right?

November 26, 2018

Behavioral Finance

The Temptation of Now

Why is it so tempting to make short-sighted decisions? And what we can do to exert more self-control?

November 12, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Losses Loom Large

From ethical behavior to athletic competition, the disproportionate drive not to lose can lead to major mistakes.

October 29, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Choiceology Season 2

Choiceology returns with a new season and a new host—Katy Milkman. Subscribe for free today to get the first episode of season 2 when it launches October 29.

October 15, 2018

Behavioral Finance

How Tomorrow Feels Today

Whether expecting joy or despair, we tend to overestimate the long-term emotional impact of life events.

May 15, 2018

Behavioral Finance

A Number in Mind

Focusing on a single data point to the exclusion of other information: It's a tried-and-true negotiating strategy, and it can quickly skew your judgment.

April 23, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Swimming with Sharks

News reports sometimes make it seem as if danger lurks around every corner. And while there's no doubt that risk is a part of life, do we worry more than we should?

April 09, 2018

Financial Planning

The Devil's Advocate

In a world awash in data, you'd think it would be relatively easy to make informed, objective decisions. But not if you only see what you want to see.

March 26, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Summit Fever

Imagine that you've put in effort toward a goal, but things haven't quite worked out the way you hoped. How do you know when it's time to let it go?

March 12, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Small Changes, Big Impact

It's not always about life-changing decisions—sometimes small changes can make a big impact.

February 26, 2018

Behavioral Finance

It's Hard to Be Humble

We can't all be above average. So why, in certain situations, do we think we're so special?

February 12, 2018

Behavioral Finance

Choiceology Trailer

You're not as rational as you think. In this new podcast, bestselling author Dan Heath performs forensic analysis on decision making. You'll hear real stories, learn from top experts, and witness informal experiments that demonstrate the mistakes we too often make.

January 19, 2018

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The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

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Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.

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