I will gladly pay more money for a six-pack of candy bars than for a ten-pack. Why? Because a six-pack means everyone in my family gets one, and there is no fighting or crying, and no kids end up eating more candy than is reasonable.
But that is different, you might say. Yes, in the case of my family, I have a largely coherent decisionmaker choosing for a set of partially aligned and incoherent agents. But do you really think your mind works so very differently?
It’s clear to me that many people prefer buying less because they have some level of self-awareness about their likely future behavior. Given that, paying more for fewer items seems perfectly rational—despite violating constraints of simplified models.
On McNuggets, I tweeted the following response:
I will gladly pay more money for a six-pack of candy bars than for a ten-pack.
Why? Because a six-pack means everyone in my family gets one, and there is no fighting or crying, and no kids end up eating more candy than is reasonable.
But that is different, you might say.
Yes, in the case of my family, I have a largely coherent decisionmaker choosing for a set of partially aligned and incoherent agents.
But do you really think your mind works so very differently?
It’s clear to me that many people prefer buying less because they have some level of self-awareness about their likely future behavior.
Given that, paying more for fewer items seems perfectly rational—despite violating constraints of simplified models.