More indifference

Why strong preferences and opinions are not (always) good for us

My teenage daughter used to ask me whether I ‘hated’ the male lead singer of the band The Beautiful South every time one of their ditties was played on the radio. It is true, there are some singers whose tones are anything but dulcet to my ears, and Paul Heaton is one of them, along with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard, and Florence Welch of the band Florence+The Machine. These are all, no doubt, fine vocalists, and the problem is surely situated entirely in my own auditive system.

But I do, of course, not remotely hate them, not even their voice. If I really did, hearing a song by these artists would probably make me throw the radio out, or at the very least make me change the station. Instead, I am pretty much indifferent — in an economic sense, that is.

Indifference is one of these words that have a slightly different meaning when they’re used by economists. Imagine you are standing in front of a shop window, looking at a pair of trainers you would like to buy priced at, say, £50. But price-sensitive as you are, you whip out your phone and you check the prices nearby. And what do you know, about two miles away, identical trainers are for sale for £45. Would you make a detour of a good half hour to save a fiver? Probably not. If the…