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Does The Notion Of 'Free' Bring Out Our Better Side?

Marketplace, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 10:56 AM

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist and author of Predictably Irrational tells Kai Ryssdal that it may not make good economic sense to charge consumers a small amount of money for their carbon emissions because, just as we do with chocolate chip cookies, we're likely to be more of a hog if we feel we're getting what we paid for. Say what?

Well, here's the analogy. If someone in your office comes in with some delicious home-baked cookies and offers them to co-workers, most of us will take one or two. But if he puts a price on them -- say a nickel a piece -- we're more likely to take more than one or two if we like them.

"What's interesting is when something is free, you all of the sudden think about the welfare of others," Ariely maintains. "But when it costs something, it's just you and your cost-benefit analysis."

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