Hypothetical question

Hypothetical question.

Would you rather pay ten thousand dollars for a new car or get that very same care for five thousand dollars. It seems like an easy choice right? Why pay twice as much if you don't have to? But what if instead of being cut and dried like that we complicated matters a little. You can pay 10k for the car all up front. Or have 1k withdrawn from your bank five separate times at random intervals, sometime over the next six months?

Suddenly, it's not so easy anymore? Why is that? Logically if you have the ten thousand now you could just leave at least half of it in the bank so that no matter when the 1k payments come out, it is covered. But, logic isn't home right now. It is being chased away by fear of the unknown. We added one random variable and suddenly the illusion of control is gone.

The mind just won't shut up about it. It comes up with all kinds of excuses and nightmare scenarios for how this is a bad idea and how we should either just take the ten thousand dollar deal or just go somewhere else.You would be amazed how often someone gets confused, frustrated or angry with you anytime you make something more advantageous for them but throw in some sort of unknown as part of the mix.

How about punishment? There was an episode of How I Met Your Mother, where there was a bet going on and the winner got to slap the loser, either ten times, right after the winner was determined or five times throughout the rest of their relationship. The loser ended up choosing the more logical 5 slaps, but regretted it due to being in constant fear of the future slaps.

What about in your personal life? In general you know the rules and laws of your surroundings and you know the penalties if you start breaking them. You can consciously choose to do the wrong thing and take the penalty. But what if you didn't know what the penalty was? You couldn't gauge whether or not it was worth it to do the crime. What if the punishment for everything was somewhere  random in between a ten dollar fine and the death sentence? Would you be more careful about what laws you broke?

Are you more scared and intimidated by an angry man that is going to break your arm or by the same angry man when you have no idea what his intentions are? The latter of course. You have no idea what is going to happen. He might want to kill you or he might just intend to give you a stern talking to.

Everything we learn about the world and the people around us is a tool, one that can be used for or against us. How can we take advantage of this knowledge in our lives? How do others use it to take advantage of us?