Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average by Joseph T. Hallinan

Author:Joseph T. Hallinan [Hallinan, Joseph T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Psychology, General
ISBN: 0767928067
Google: tZdhmbRpitoC
Amazon: B001S59CNC
Publisher: Broadway Books
Published: 2009-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

Lying and Lottery Tickets

Men and women not only perceive some aspects of the world differently; they often perceive themselves differently. When it comes to making mistakes, for instance, women appear to be harder on themselves than men are. For example, studies have shown that men tend to forget their mistakes more readily than women do. And mistakes appear to dog women in ways that do not bother men. In interviews, for instance, women indicate that situations involving failure affect their self-esteem more than do situations involving success; no such difference has been reported for men.

Even when they lie, men and women have been shown to lie in different ways.

For many traits women have also been found to be less optimistic (or perhaps more realistic) than men. Various studies have shown that college men, for instance, are more likely than college women to expect to do well, and to judge their own performance favorably once they have finished their work. Some of the tasks involved in these tests were ones in which men characteristically do do better (such as work with geometric figures); but many were not (such as solving anagrams). Women get at least as good grades as men do—and often better. Yet, when asked what grades they think they will get, men are more optimistic. Even when they tell lies, men and women have been shown to lie in different ways. College men tell more lies about themselves, for instance, tending to exaggerate their plans and achievements (especially when talking with women). College women, on the other hand, tend to lie to enhance another person.

This relative difference in confidence about one's prospects in the world can contribute to mistakes in tangible ways. In one telling illustration from a real-world experiment, researchers sold lottery tickets for $1.00 to men and women at a corporation.

Women were willing to sell their lottery tickets for much less than men were.

Afterward, researchers went around to the; people who had bought them and asked if they'd be interested in selling the tickets back, and if so at what price. Women, they found, were willing to sell out for a much lower price than men were. On average, the women wanted just $1.33 for their tickets—not much more than the original purchase price of $1.00. The men, by comparison, wanted more than four times as much for their tickets.

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