Making Better Choices Today

Daniel Goldstein dedicates his time and efforts to studying the way human beings make economic and social decisions. In this speech, he carefully explains why people constantly give in to temptations. He describes the battle between the current self and the future self as one of unequal balance that far too often leads to someone making a poor decision that he or she will surely regret later on.

Daniel Goldstein then offers tools and advice to help the audience better understand how they can make better decisions each day that will improve their future selves, both socially and economically. He introduces the concept of a commitment device and then demonstrates how this tool often results in failure. In sharing his own research and theories, Daniel Goldstein offers an alternative method to help individuals make better decisions today, namely financial decisions, that will create a better future.