How Do Incentives Affect Behavior?

My seat belt used to be my dad holding out his right arm and saying ‘Hold on Ricky’. Cars have become much safer, what about the internet?

 

 

Transcript

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Cars today are far, far safer than when I was a child. Back before seat belts my dad would slam on the brakes and go like this, to make sure I didn’t hit the metal dashboard. Like that was gonna help in a crash. Even if the car is going twenty or thirty, you hit the dash with tons of force, and I doubt my dad’s right arm could support even half a ton.

Luckily today’s cars have airbags, signals, lots of mirrors, TV cameras, sensors, crumple zones, collapsible steering column, uni-body construction, traction control, steel belted tires, stability control, fuel cutoff, and the roads are much safer, better marked, with signs that warn you of conditions, traffic reports, and there’s way better driver training…cars are a thousand times safer… but the accident rate hasn’t changed much at all. All the improvements just mean people feel safer and they actually drive faster and more dangerously.

I heard one of the engineers who develop safety gadgets lament that it might be a better to put a broken bottle on the middle of the steering wheel. You hit something, you’re gonna take a nice core sample of your chest. Still wanna drive that close the car in front?  His point was that if people had to face the consequences, they’d behave better on the roads.

That’s true everywhere, isn’t it?  Like the rich kid, whose family keeps bailing him out when he breaks the law. No incentive to behave.  The abusive spouse whose partner keeps taking them back.  Where you see this most starkly, is right here, on the internet. In my life, one or two people have tried to sell me on shaky investments or scam me. On the internet I get two and three E mails a day about inheritances in Nigerian banks. There’s no incentive to behave on the internet. And a sizeable portion of people don’t. They hide the in faceless mob. Anonymity, the haven for the craven and cowardly. The spout opinions, but they don’t even believe in what they are saying. Otherwise they’d say who they are.

Anyway, I love the internet and what it makes possible. But I tell you, when I look around at the garbage about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, I feel sick.  We don’t allow companies to sell products that are harmful. Why do we allow people to post medical information that is wrong, dangerous and criminal?  I’m not in favor of censorship, believe me. But, we have laws to protect consumers from hucksters. If you’re being lied to, you have a right to know.  Until that happens, it’s up to you to beware. Buckle up before you drive the information superhighway.

The Internet contains some good information about Adult ADHD, but a lot MORE questionable half-truths and outright lies.

Rants About Life

For more rants from Rick see:

• Don’t Label Me ADHD
• The Internet is Amazing.  People are Annoying.
• Scientist, ADHD, Full Moons, Facts and Statistics.
• The ADHD Mind
• Treatments vs Cures