When you are in a helicopter do you believe it will crash? The statistics say it’s not all that likely, although a whole lot more likely than being in a car crash. And how about the risks of vaccines? How do we make best choices about which risks to take?
How do you get yourself to do something that feels hard or scary? By tricking yourself…it’s so worth it.
Already the government is rethinking our COVID strategy as the result of Delta – the strategy came out in August and now it’s September, that didn’t last long. Surely it’s not that hard to assess risk?
It’s level 2 outside of Auckland – time to do things! Why don’t people get on and do things? Because they procrastinate…but what’s the difference between delayed gratification (seen as good) and procrastination (seen as bad)?
We are shortly going to Level 2 (sorry Auckland, who is not). I can go to the garden centre! And invite friends round. And maybe go skiing. Nothing like deprivation to drive a feeling of reward.
What’s the link between vaccination for COVID and hospitalisation? It’s surprisingly hard to find out. You’d think this would be a critical piece of information from which governments make decisions.
Economic models typically assume humans act in their own best interests. Except they don’t…so the field of behavioural economics developed. How do we figure out which are our best interests we should act on?
How effective is New Zealand’s lockdown against the Delta strain, compared with Australia’s? People wish for better ways of locking down, but there is not ‘better’ lockdown than an absolute one if you are trying to control spread of a virus.
How do you decide whether to get vaccinated, when there is an indubitable small risk to yourself from vaccination, but a greater societal benefit when most people get vaccinated. The trolley problem may provide a useful thought process.
My level 3 treat is a mountain bike ride. Does that mean I get to eat extra? Maybe 1 avocado, according to Herman Pontzer who has found there is little difference in energy expenditure between couch potatoes and moderately active people. How can this be?
