Member-only story
Compensating emotions
The choices we make reveal that we are sometimes quite content to make material sacrifices for emotional utility, and indeed to accept material compensation for emotional damage. But how far can we go in this?
“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, Mary Poppins used to sing (that’s your earworm sorted for today). An instructive song, although perhaps a bit questionable given that it celebrates a substance that has, since the 1964 movie, acquired a certain stigma. Its more enduring lesson is that combining something perceived as positive with something perceived as negative was capable of changing behaviour: refusal to swallow a bitter pill might be overturned if it is first sweetened.
Emotions in standard economics
The idea sounds like it is coming straight from behavioural economics, but it fits perfectly well in standard economics too. Incentives — often material benefits — do influence behaviour. People are prepared to work overtime if the pay compensates them for the time sacrificed, time they could otherwise spend on more pleasant, leisurely activities. The prospect of winning a voucher redeemable at a well-known online bookstore is often used to entice people to spend time…
