« Peak oil: Chevron CTO's best guess | Main | A history of electroshock therapy: Sherwin Nuland on TED.com »
26 October 2007
How toddlers (and monkeys) make choices

What's the relationship between our happiness and the choices we make? TEDTalks from Barry Schwartz and Daniel Gilbert point out some paradoxes of this relationship, and the complex emotions involved in choice. Now, some new research from Yale sheds light on how toddlers and monkeys make choices. From the BPS Research Digest Blog:
Forty 4-year-olds used a scale of smiley faces to indicate how much they liked a range of animal stickers. For each child, the researchers identified three stickers which that child liked equally – let’s call these A, B, C. Each child then faced two choices – first to choose which of A or B they would like to take home. Afterwards, they then had to choose between sticker C and whichever sticker (A or B) they hadn’t selected before.
The surprising result was, faced with the second choice, the kids overwhelmingly picked sticker C -- though they'd liked all three stickers equally at first. The other surprising result was, the researchers got the same result with capuchin monkeys, who chose among three different-colored M&Ms.
For more on this study, read the journal abstract or a detailed post on the blog The Proper Study of Mankind.
Photo from Wikimedia:
Cebus capucinus: Capuchin Monkeys Sharing
Source: Powell K: Economy of the Mind. PLoS Biol 1/3/2003: e77. Photo courtesy of Frans de Waal.
Technorati tags: Barry Schwartz, Dan Gilbert
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.ted.com/cgi-bin/mte/mt-tb.cgi/3186
Tools for TED.com
Find transcripts >>
Download the TED Miro player >>
Subscribe to the TED Blog's RSS feed >>
Join our Facebook Group >>
Tips? Comments? contact (at) ted (dot) com
Get the latest TED Prize news on TEDPrize.org>>
TED Bloggers
Chris Anderson | Curator
June Cohen | Director of TED Media
Amy Novogratz | TED Prize Director
Tom Rielly | Humorist
Bruno Giussani | TED European Director
Jason Wishnow | Director, Film + Video
Emily McManus | Editor, TED.com
Matthew Trost | Editorial Assistant, TED.com
Blogs we watch
>> TEDPrize.org | Updates on the 2008 TED Prize winners and wishes: Dave Eggers' wish blog; Karen Armstrong's wish blog; Neil Turok's wish blog
>> Thomas Dolby | TED Musical Director, blogging at ThomasDolby.com
>> Bruno Giussani | TED European Director, blogging at LunchOverIP.com
>> Emeka Okafor | TEDAfrica Director, blogging at Timbuktu Chronicles and Africa Unchained
Archives
Recent Comments
dadamsx on XO laptop redesign: Pics!
denmeade on TEDTalks turn 2!
walkermann on Eva Vertes told us first: Stem cells may cause brain cancer
AntoniK on Wordle, an addictive new web toy
hesap123 on TEDTalks turn 2!
rmoede on TEDTalks turn 2!
John5 on "Clonie": Nellie McKay on TED.com
MooseRocket on 50 million TEDTalks viewed, more on the way
docsharp01 on Stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor on TED.com
docsharp01 on 100 Websites You Should Know and Use








