Image via Wikipedia Books & Memories is a secondhand book store in Syracuse, New York, with a terrible name and dead web site. 2600 James St Syracuse, NY 13206-2842 (315) 434-9268 But because visiting it made me enormously happy, I’ll describe it here, so that you may believe, despite the inability to click on it. [...]
Entries Tagged as 'behavioral economics'
Happiness is a Warm Sparkler: Where Spending Overlaps Joy
July 3rd, 2009 2 Comments
Tags: happiness · money psychology · Venn diagram
Mafia Wars Money Warps Hubby’s Perspective of Chump Change
June 15th, 2009 2 Comments
Thanks to my wife’s insistence, I joined Facebook a few months ago. After the initial shock and awe, I stumbled into an online game called Mafia Wars. It’s essentially a role-playing game reconfigured for social networking. You create your character, then ask your friends to join your mafia. The bigger your mafia, the more fights [...]
Tags: Mafia Wars · money psychology
Why It’s So Hard to Pack Light and Spend Well
May 27th, 2009 1 Comment
Items packed, but not used, on my trip to Syracuse, New York: Workout clothes (2 pr shorts, 2 shirts, 1 exercise bra, 4 pr socks) 2 work-related books 2 work-related files Why do we think we’ll work and exercise according to our everyday schedules while we’re on vacation? It may give you comfort (or an [...]
Tags: money · relative comparisons · time
I Love Me, Man: The True Target-Minnesota Connection
May 13th, 2009 2 Comments
Why do Minnesotans love Target so much? Recently, the Star Tribune reported that despite Target’s losses to Wal-Mart in the rest of the country, it was still holding its own here. To many Minnesotans, the equation is not “MN-heart-Target.” It’s “MN = Target,” says a University of Minnesota researcher. Carlos Torelli, assistant professor of marketing [...]
Tags: Minnesota identity · Target
Well That Was Fun: Spending’s Hit of Joy
April 1st, 2009 4 Comments
I have a vivid memory of standing with my mom in her bedroom as she went through her closet, bemoaning that she had nothing to wear. I was probably 4 or so. I didn’t understand what she meant — there were clothes everywhere. Now she is me. My own closet is full of vintage dresses [...]
Tags: money psychology
The Money See-Saw: Trending Up?
March 31st, 2009 No Comments
Image by Roby72© via Flickr 2,160. That’s the estimated number of times the word “money” turns up in the 360-page novel Money, by Martin Amis. And the word never loses its thrill. What was narrator John Self thinking or feeling about money right now? What would happen — good or bad — because money was [...]
Tags: Martin Amis · money psychology · Steve Almond
What Price? Look to the Social Cues
December 9th, 2008 No Comments
Recently I had a request to grant copyright permission for a class. Included with the request was a form where I could decline permission to use the article, grant free use, or name a fee for use. I was confused. Wasn’t this a clear example of fair use? (Which allows small numbers of copies to [...]
Tags: Dan Ariely · market exchanges · Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Ou · social contract
