The Influential Mind Made Me Think #5: On Agency And The Hardship Of Financial Decisions
Not too long ago, in one of my posts I talked about the possible non-existence of free will and the illusion of agency that our consciousness generates. After writing that paper for school and sharing it here on Steemit, I have had several discussions with people around me. As of now we cannot conclude with 100% certainty if free will exists or not. I defend the point that it does not but at the same time, I acknowledge that it might exist. We can conclude one thing though, for most people the non-existence of free will makes them uncomfortable. Why? I believe it is because it removes their sense of agency over the actions that they themselves take.
When we have a choice to make a choice, we take it. We love making a choice and being rewarded for it, but it does not end there. I think this is also deeply rooted in the passion of humans for learning. Once we make a choice and are rewarded for it, in the future we know what choices to make to be rewarded. In other words, we are learning and for us to learn we need to make choices and confront the consequences, positive or negative.
On the other had, we like making choices because it gives us a greater sense of agency and control over ourselves and the environments around us. When we have more control over the decisions taken, we have more control over the outcomes. Sometimes though, it can be counterproductive. Take the example that Tali Sharot gives in "The Influential Mind":
The problem emerges when our desire for control results in otherwise worse outcomes. Take Theo, for example. Theo is a middle-aged bartender who works at a downtown restaurant in the city of Los Angeles. Every night at the end of his shift, Theo gathers the loose change and bills he earned from tips and stashes the loot under his mattress for safekeeping. Over the years, a significant amount has accumulated under his bedding, such that the clacking of the coins keeps him awake at night. Theo is aware that by hiding the money in his bedroom, rather than depositing it in a savings or investment account, he is losing interest on his earnings. Yet from Theo's perspective, this loss is worth the peace of mind he experiences from feeling he has full control over his funds.
By hiding his money under his mattress, Theo has more control over it, but he is losing possible interests he could be earning. There are many people like Theo around, I even know some in my inner most social circles. Nevertheless, I want to take this a step further. Whenever I have gone to chats by successful investment people, they all say one thing in common: "start investing as early in your life as you can". One repellent aspect of investing is that whenever you put money in a company or a market, you are putting your trust in them. You will not have a direct influence on them, and therefore you will be losing your sense of agency.
There is yet another factor, though. When you invest, you can pick the stocks yourself, or you can hire an expert to do it for you. It is proven that stock pickers perform worse than experts that offer their services to chose for you, and these stock pickers know it! Then, why do they keep on picking for themselves? For the most part it is this sense of agency or control. It is purely emotional. They know they might not perform as well, but knowing that they chose for themselves gives them some sort of peace. For financial reasons then it is imperative that we learn as early as possible in our lives to be comfortable losing agency when the situation asks for it. Losing agency is irrational, but in some situations trying to hold on to it as tight as possible is even more irrational...
P.S.: In the last post of the influential mind, I explore how some phobias might be more related to the losing of agency than to the phobia itself. For example, for the fear of flying, the fear might come from the losing of agency over the situation and not from the dangers of flying.
What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinions.
If you want to check out other thoughts that this awesome book has evoked, click on these past posts:
- The Influential Mind Made Me Think #1: Disinformation That The Information Era Has Created
- The Influential Mind Made Me Think #2: The Power Of Language And Ideas
- The Influential Mind Made Me Think #3: On The Facebook Scandal, Data Usage, And The Spreading Of Emotions
- The Influential Mind Made Me Think #4: On The Irrationality of Phobias
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