The Winner’s Curse: Why “Winning” Often Means You Just Lost with Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler (#288)
2/10/202623 min
We all love the thrill of winning - the house, the promotion, the deal. But as Nobel laureate Richard Thaler explains, some of our biggest “wins” are actually the moments we set ourselves up to lose. Thaler breaks down why we overbid, overpay, and talk ourselves into choices we regret. And he shares simple tricks to help you catch yourself before you make a mistake you can’t undo.
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First 90 secondsLynn Thoman· Host0:00
[chime] We all love to win: the promotion, the deal, the auction, the house. But sometimes winning turns out to be the biggest mistake. Imagine celebrating a victory, only to realize you've paid too much, promised too much, or believed too much. That's the winner's curse, and it doesn't just happen in business, it happens in everyday life. Why do smart people, even Nobel Prize winners, fall for it? And more importantly, how can we stop ourselves from doing things that make absolutely no sense? [music] Hi, everyone. I'm Lynn Thoman, and this is Three Takeaways. On Three Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers, and scientists. Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better. Today, I'm excited to be with Richard Thaler. Richard won the Nobel Prize in Economics, but not for solving some abstract mathematical puzzle. He won it for noticing something that others had missed. People are irrational, predictably irrational. We overpay at auctions. We