Comments on: Just what I needed, another variable http://thurston.halfcat.org/blog/2006/04/21/just-what-i-needed-another-variable/ We are the people your IT department warned you about Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:20:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Ascription is an Anathema to any Enthusiasm » Blog Archive » The Perception of Risk http://thurston.halfcat.org/blog/2006/04/21/just-what-i-needed-another-variable/#comment-4416 Sun, 23 Apr 2006 14:34:37 +0000 http://thurston.halfcat.org/blog/2006/04/21/just-what-i-needed-another-variable/#comment-4416 [...] Another fun item from Charlie Howe’s blog about how people manage the risks in their life. People try to get what they percieve to be the right amount of risk into their lives, but they do this on really really lousy data. So there are all kinds of breakdowns. [...] […] Another fun item from Charlie Howe’s blog about how people manage the risks in their life. People try to get what they percieve to be the right amount of risk into their lives, but they do this on really really lousy data. So there are all kinds of breakdowns. […]

]]> by: Ben Hyde http://thurston.halfcat.org/blog/2006/04/21/just-what-i-needed-another-variable/#comment-4411 Sun, 23 Apr 2006 14:10:18 +0000 http://thurston.halfcat.org/blog/2006/04/21/just-what-i-needed-another-variable/#comment-4411 Delightful. You see social engineering efforts along these line at all scales. Attempts to increase or decrease risk taking at the macro economic level for example v.s. attempts to get teenagers to adjust their risk taking. It's another example of situation where a middleman can help. The middleman can sell the insurance to one actor (reducing the risk) but keep it's existance hidden from another actor (avoiding the behavior change). I'm reminded of that in part because of your earlier posting about Ebay getting tricked into revealing a buyer's nominally hidden price to sellers via second chance. Delightful.

You see social engineering efforts along these line at all scales. Attempts to increase or decrease risk taking at the macro economic level for example v.s. attempts to get teenagers to adjust their risk taking.

It’s another example of situation where a middleman can help. The middleman can sell the insurance to one actor (reducing the risk) but keep it’s existance hidden from another actor (avoiding the behavior change). I’m reminded of that in part because of your earlier posting about Ebay getting tricked into revealing a buyer’s nominally hidden price to sellers via second chance.

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