What’s the Big Idea? With Guests Robert Rydell & Don Moore

Choiceology with Katy Milkman

Charles Schwab

Behavioral Economics, Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Decision Making, Charles Schwab, Business, Science, Investing, Dan Heath, Katy Milkman

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When young children imagine their future lives, they’re often very optimistic. They’ll say things like “I’m going to be an astronaut!” or “When I grow up, I want to be a movie star!” These outcomes are, of course, quite rare. Most children will grow into slightly less exotic careers as adults. But even as adults, we tend toward personal optimism. We assume that we will outlive the average person, that we will remain in better health than the average person, and that our children will be above average in school or in sports. Of course, we can’t all be above average. In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at the mistakes we make when we assume we’re less susceptible to failure or negative outcomes than are other people.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Everyone is coming to the world's fair. They're coming from the four corners of the
0:12.0	earth and from five corners Idaho.
0:16.0	1939, the New York World's Fair.
0:20.0	1984, the St. Louis Fair.
0:24.0	1889, the Paris International Exposition.
0:30.0	As you've probably guessed from those archival clips, we're talking about world's fairs in this
0:36.0	episode. While many of these fairs have ushered in new eras of technological achievement, produced
0:42.0	iconic structures, and burnished the reputation of their host cities. Many didn't live up to the
0:48.0	top. Coming up, you'll hear about the grand designs and less than grand reality of one particular
0:54.0	world's fair. And I'll speak with behavioral scientists Don Moore about a group of biases
1:00.0	that can lead us to take unwise risks.
1:08.0	I'm Dr. Katie Milkman and this is Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab.
1:14.0	It's a show about the psychology and economics behind our decisions.
1:18.0	We bring you true stories involving high stakes moments and then we explore the latest research
1:24.0	in behavioral science to help you make better judgments and avoid costly mistakes.
1:30.0	Think mass spectacle, think nation branding, think huge mega events, massive exhibition
1:50.0	pavilions. That's Robert Rydell, a professor of history at Montana State University
1:56.0	whose research focuses on world's fairs. The term world's fair will signify a kind of mass outdoor
2:04.0	spectacle with lots of exhibits that are entertaining. Some educational, the world's fairs, not a trade show,
2:12.0	but it certainly does have commercial exhibits attached to it.
2:16.0	The first world's fair was in London in 1851, with hundreds more following in the years since.
2:22.0	These mega events are typically designed to showcase the cultural, technological, and scientific
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -1294 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Charles Schwab, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Charles Schwab and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.