35 - Part 5 Two Selves - Chapter 35: Two Selves

Part 5 Two Selves Chapter 35: Two Selves

·         decision utility = wantability, governs decisions

·         experienced utility = enjoyed (hedonic) experience

Experienced Utility

• ·         ∃ discrepancies betw. exper’d util. & decision util.
• ·         e.g. reduce painful injections fr. 6 to 4 is preferrred over 20 injections  to 18, even tho it’s the same reduction of 2, seems like greater reduction — decision util. is higher for 6 to 4, but exper’d util. is the same
• ·         sometimes exper’d util. shd be used to assess a decision

Experience and Memory

• ·         how to measure exper’d util.?

o   (1) hedonimeter totals — e.g. during surgery, period’ly ask subj‘t, How much pain on scale 0 to 10)? then plot  graph

o   (2) retrospective assessments — afterward ask subj’t , How much pain in total?

• ·         retro. assess’ts showed 2 surprising results:

o   peak-end rule — pain measured by subjts was avg of pain at worst moment and at end

o  

duration neglect: duration had no effect on ratings of total pain

·        

• A rated pain worse than B, peak-end average 7.5 vs. 4.5
• ·         the 2 measues of exper’d util. (hedon. totals & retro. assess’ts) are system’ly different

o   hedon. totals are “duration weighted,” i.e. each moment under curve in graph weighted equally 

o    retro. assess’ts weight peak & end more than other moment, insensitive to duration

• ·          experiencing self (Does it hurt now?) vs. remembering self (How was it, on the whole?)
• ·         cogn. illusion, confuse exper. w. memory of it — e.g. record w. bad scratch near end — rememb. self can be wrong but it controls what we learn fr. experience, makes decisions

·         the tyranny of the rememb. self, what we learn fr. the past is to maximize the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience

Which Self Should Count?

• ·         cold-hand experiment — immerse hand in cold water for 60sec vs. 90 sec w. gradual warm-up, future choice is for 90 sec — supports diff betw the 2 selves (exper. & rememb.), exper. util vs. decision util.
• ·         cf. add dishes to set of 24, if a few are brokentheir value lowered — cf. also activist woman judged more likely feminist bank teller than bank teller — all show features of S1 — S1 rep’s sets by avgs, norms, prototypes, not by sums
• ·         remem. self remembers cold hand experience as set of indiv moments, esp peak & end

Biology vs. Rationality

• ·         these memory-based decisions &  tastes are wrong, not rational, not produce best poss.  experiences
• ·         these decisions not produce best poss. experience, wrong forecast of future feelings — cannot fully trust our pref’s to reflect our interests, even if based on personal experience, even experience added to memory only 30 min. ago — tastes & decisions shaped by memories,  wh.  can be wrong
• ·         this is contrary to the rational-agent model of decision-making

Speaking of Two Selves

• ·         “You are thinking of your failed marriage entirely from the perspective of the remembering self. A divorce is like a symphony with a screeching sound at the end—the fact that it ended badly does not mean it was all bad.”
• ·         “This is a bad case of duration neglect. You are giving the good and the bad part of your experience equal weight, although the good part lasted ten times as long as the other.”