Choosing a College Major

When we feel angry or excited, or happy or sad, the reasons for those emotions may seem obvious. Angry? It was that argument with a spouse. Excited? It was that promotion at work. Happy? Must've been that delicious meal. Sad? It was that tearjerker film, for sure. But it turns out that we often mistake the root causes of our feelings and other experiences.

In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at a family of biases that affects the way we understand behaviors, events, and emotions.

Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordier grew up in different parts of the world. They were raised speaking different languages. They lived in very different home environments. They experienced different types of schooling. You'd probably assume these two women with very different upbringings turned out quite differently.  After all, where and how you're raised has a big impact on the person you become. Surprisingly though, Samantha and Anaïs share some uncanny similarities.

Samantha Futerman is an American actress, writer, and director. She is known for her supporting role in the drama film Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as her self-made documentary film Twinsters.

Anaïs Bordier is a French designer and brand manager based in Paris. She was also a producer for the film Twinsters.

Next, Katy speaks with Kareem Haggag about how our preferences change, more than we might expect, depending on the physical state we're in. You'll hear about how early morning classes may affect the choice of a college major and how your perceptions of a restaurant may be substantially influenced by your hunger level.

Kareem Haggag is an assistant professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. You can read his research on attribution bias and other topics on his website. 

Finally, Katy offers tips on how to "debias" yourself and avoid the traps of misattribution, based on Kareem Haggag's findings.

Choiceology is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. For more on the series, visit schwab.com/podcast.

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