The Decoy Effect and Luigi Mangione

[ck4829]

Link to tweet

The Decoy Effect in text rather than tweet:

In the left side of this illustration we see two options, each of which is better on a different attribute. Option (A)
is better on attribute 1-let’s say quality. Option (B) is better on attribute 2-let’s say beauty. Obviously these are
two very different options and the choice between them is not simple. Now consider what happens if we add
another option, called (-A) (see the right side of the illustration). This option is clearly worse than option (A), but
it is also very similar to it, making the comparison between them easy, and suggesting that (A) is not only better
than (-A) but also better than (B).

In essence, introducing (-A), the decoy, creates a simple relative comparison with (A), and hence makes (A)
look better, not just relative to (-A), but overall as well. As a consequence, the inclusion of (-A) in the set, even if
no one ever selects it, makes people more likely to make (A) their final choice.

https://www.capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/the-decoy-effect/?pdf=14336

So what was Brian Thompson and UHC to him?

Pretty sure he didn't see them as (B).

[Silent Type]

1. A rationalization to shoot someone in the back, sounds like. He might just be another incel looking

for relevance, similar to shooter at trump rally.

[NoRethugFriends]

3. Or you could read what's already available and realize that's not it.

[Silent Type]

5. How's that? Did his mom, child, etc., die directly from an insurance denial. Haven't seen any evidence of that

just some praise for the Una-Bomber. If there is something else, I'll read it.

[NoRethugFriends]

9. if you read it all about his background you realize he's not an incel

[Drum]

2. Perhaps he used logic and graphics to sidestep morality.

Or perhaps he was completely conscious of the path he was walking and his own equation will now be balanced. The so-called manifesto will probably reveal more.

Nonetheless, he’s in the jailhouse now.

[usonian]

4. Probably irrelevant to the case

See anchoring effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_effect

Might be more analogous to the Unabomber.

Regardless, someone we dislike does need lots of distraction from his insanity, and I am not making any causal connection.

[LeftInTX]

6. Looks like some logic thing.

His specialty was AI

I did horribly in logic. Just horribly although I have a degree in math. There is also a component of logic and philosophy. That's what this looks like. Using some type of logic to model human decisions. These types of trees can also be used in advertising.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoy_effect

Probably not related to this shooting. He's just discussing something and he probably did this for a living.

Another example shown in Dan Ariely's book Predictably Irrational was a true case used by The Economist magazine.[4] The subscription screen presented three options:

1 Economist.com subscription - US $59.00. One-year subscription to Economist.com. Includes online access to all articles from The Economist since 1997

2 Print subscription - US $125.00. One-year subscription to the print edition of The Economist

3 Print & web subscription - US $125.00. One-year subscription to the print edition of The Economist and online access to all articles from The Economist since 1997

Given these choices, 16% of the students in the experiment conducted by Ariely chose the first option, 0% chose the middle option, and 84% chose the third option. Even though nobody picked the second option, when he removed that option the result was the inverse: 68% of the students picked the online-only option, and 32% chose the print and web option.

Now I can't unsee option #2.
We had option 3 with our local paper, then switched to option 1. But we aren't students.

[crud]

7. What the hell

maybe option A is violent revolution, and option B is submit to oppression.
The attribute of A is freedom, with a loss of safety, and attribute of B is safety without freedom.
the decoy would be peaceful protest accomplishing little in safety or freedom making violent revolution the "perceived" better choice.

I say perceived, because this is not a proper way to make choices. It is a way to deceive the chooser.

[Iggo]

8. A contemplation of Fredkin's Paradox will come in handy next time I go guitar shopping.