Please answer the following questions:Q1: Market vs. Social NormsThink about the ways in which Ariely’s discussion of social norms and market norms applies toyour day-to-day life. Describe an example of a relationship that you share with someone that isgoverned by social norms, and describe one that is governed by market norms. How do the twocompare? That is, how do you behave in each relationship, and how does the other personbehave toward you? Try to describe how each relationship makes you feel, in terms of yourconnection to the other person. How would each relationship change if you were to switch fromone set of norms to the other, trying to apply social norms to the market-norms relationship andmarket norms to the social-norms relationship?Q2: Your Dr. Jekyll vs. Mr. HydeWithout getting too cynical or sinister, think about Ariely’s conclusion that we all have within usboth a ‘Dr. Jekyll’ and a ‘Mr. Hyde’. In your experience with the various types of passion(whether through your own passionate states or those of the people you know), would you agreethat we are generally susceptible to wild swings from being mild-mannered and sober-minded tobeing uninhibited and even morally irresponsible? (Try not to be self-incriminating, or toographic, if you feel the need to share any account of your ‘wild side’.) Can you imagine that youmight not even know what your thoughts and inclinations might be when you are in a passionatestate, or do you think that you know yourself – both sides of yourself – better than that? Wouldyou characterize either state as ‘the real you’? If so, which? And why? Or do Ariely’s findingsmake you wonder whether any of us is, at bottom, either a ‘Dr. Jekyll’ or a ‘Mr. Hyde’, orwhether we are inseparably both?Q3: Procrastination and YouHow might Ariely’s insights into procrastination help you to achieve your long-term goals? Thinkof two long-term goals that you haven’t yet met but might have met by now had you donesomething differently. What are these goals, and why are they important to you? What has so fargotten in the way of achieving them? What might you do to break this cycle of procrastination?That is, what kinds of incentives might you give yourself to make real progress toward your goalsand finally achieve them?Q4: Day-to-Day Probability Wheelan’s discussions of probability and its abuses seem to reflect something that Ariely ought toagree with: as much sense as probability makes, and as much as it impacts our lives each day, wedon’t seem to think in terms of probability as much as we ought to in order to be rational, andwhen we do we’re not all that good at it. Take, for example, the Monty Hall problem: why didn’teverybody on Let’s Make a Deal switch doors? And when five coin flips in a row give us tails, whydo we suddenly forget that the probability of heads on the next flip is still 0.5? For the nextcouple of days, try to identify the situations in your life in which you (or someone around you)would do well to consider the probability of some event or another (other than the classic cases ofcard games, dice-rolling, coin-flips, and the oh-so-common choice between three doors). Keep alog of these situations, and once you have done so think about how your consideration ofprobability might have affected your decision-making in two or three of these situations. Wouldyou have acted differently? Would it have made much of a difference in outcome? Do you thinkthat you could condition yourself to better appreciate probability on the spot – at least in thissituation, now that you’ve thought about it – or do you think that there’s just something aboutour brains that causes us to sometimes overlook probability at the risk of being irrational? If thelatter, what could this be?Rubric is also provided.Please answer each question no less than 400 words.
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