What’s the Big Idea? With Guests Robert Rydell & Don Moore

When young children imagine their future lives, they’re often very optimistic. They’ll say things like “I’m going to be an astronaut!” or “When I grow up, I want to be a movie star!” These outcomes are, of course, quite rare. Most children will grow into slightly less exotic careers as adults. But even as adults, we tend toward personal optimism. We assume that we will outlive the average person, that we will remain in better health than the average person, and that our children will be above average in school or in sports. Of course, we can’t all be above average.

In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at the mistakes we make when we assume we’re less susceptible to failure or negative outcomes than are other people.