There Are Free Lunches

Behavioral clues to a happy life.

by Diogo Goncalves

Philosopher Alain de Botton on "Status Anxiety"

Alain de Botton, the most-read philosopher alive, answered some questions about his wonderful book “Status Anxiety," which focused on the anxiety prevalent in many modern societies to be Number One. Read More

Telling the Truth, Repeating a Lie

Believing in a self-interested model of humanity can be partial and incomplete, but even more disturbing it can also bring to surface the worst in us, contributing to a more selfish social environment. Read More

What Adam Smith Forgot

Adam Smith created one of the most famous ideas in economics. The brilliant Scottish economist called his idea The Invisible Hand and through its creation removed from our minds the fear of free markets theory, making people believe that the best way to regulation is self-regulation. Read More

Self-Regulation: Consumer Non-Behavior

What is self-regulation? Self-regulation is synonymous with individual inhibition of an automatic behavior of future negative consequences, through a self-control process. Read More

The Honesty Bar

While on a vacation; on the beautiful island of Madeira (I truly recommend it), I was amazed by the philosophy of the pools' bar management. Called the "Honesty Bar," it had no waiters! Besides that, it had everything else a normal pool bar would have: fresh drinks, snacks, chocolates, candies, bread, cheese and ham. Read More

Diogo Gonçalves is a Ph.D. candidate in Economic Psychology, Judgment and Decision Making at the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research at Tilburg University.

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