Gain or loss?
The same choice, put as a gain or as a loss, gets different answers. Restate it the other way before you decide.
5 minutes · trains Keep a cool head · points only, never money
Eight choices about floods, jobs, trees and points, each between a sure thing and a gamble. Choose the plan you would rather have. At the end, see whether your answers depended on the facts or on the words.
Eight choices, each between plan A, a sure thing, and plan B, a gamble. There is no right answer. Pick the plan you would rather have.
Answer as you would for real, and do not look back. The lab shows what your answers have in common at the end.
Try it yourself
A flood threatens 600 homes. Plan A saves 200 homes for sure. Plan B has a 1 in 3 chance of saving all 600 and a 2 in 3 chance of saving none. A colleague says: "Plan A means losing 400 homes for sure, so take Plan B." What is wrong with that?
3 questions, a minute or two. Nothing to finish first.
Want more? Practise Keep a cool head.
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- Say it both ways The same choice, put as what you keep or as what you lose, gets different answers. Restate it the other way before you decide.
- Sunk cost What you have already spent is gone. Decide on what happens next, not on what you put in.
- Tilt Playing worse because of frustration, often after a bad loss.
- The Keep a cool head course Lessons and practice for the skill this lab trains.