[T]he standard assumption in economics is that people care more about the present than the future, which implies that they should put off unpleasant tasks and overindulge their immediate appetites. […] But the preferences that conventional economists view as exotic shed light on important aspects of what is actually very ordinary behavior. It is, after all, hardly exotic that people derive current pleasure and pain from thinking about what might happen in the future, and, as a result, often expedite negative experiences to ´get them over with quickly´ or ´save the best for last´.
– Loewenstein (2007)
Det Loewenstein kaller «eksotiske preferanser» er meget interessant, og det vil i det følgende komme flere artikler om dette og adferdsøkonomi. Det er samtidig morsomt å se hva Loewenstein sier om akademia – det er muligens ikke like idyllisk som mange forestiller seg:
[A]cademia is a nasty environment, strewn with hidden traps and populated by hostile, territorial tribes protecting their ideas with a ferocity akin to what one would expect a parent to direct at someone trying to steal his baby.
– Loewenstein (2007)
Om ikke miljøet er avskrekkende nok, er det et annet aspekt ved det akademiske liv som gjør seg gjeldende for mange:
Indeed, many academics require elaborate self-control strategies to take a break from their work, such as booking expensive, nonrefundable vacations. On the face of it, such a pattern is strange because we usually think of people as requiring self-control to work rather than to play.
– Loewenstein (2007)