> > Of course I'm sure that they actually knew the answers perfectly well, > but couldn't be bothered to answer my questions accurately being the > profoundly rational optomizers that they are... ;-} > - - Bill Dickens
Of course, very few people, if any, are "profoundly rational optimizers," but they are approximate optimizers. Their numbers may not be accurate, but their observation that a positive correlation exists between education and income is correct. They may think that is all the information they need to make a decision, so why gather more? (One must also factor in the value of higher social status accorded to the college educated.) Scientists may be trained not to trust anecdotal evidence, but college freshmen are not so trained. They perceive the worldly advantages of college education to be so obvious that further research of the question cannot, in their minds, justify the opportunity cost. In fact, even if their conclusions were wrong, it would still be rational to act upon them if they were confident, however erroneously, that they were correct. So why don't far more people enroll in college and get a degree? Some people are more educable than others. Many people realize, usually correctly, that they can not master a complex field of study as well as their brighter peers, so they opt for another niche where they think they will be able to compete more effectively. And, yes, I know one can find exceptions to this generalization, but it is probably true more often than not. Some students realize they'll never succeed in professional sports, others realize they'll never succeed in law or medecine. Why do short people rarely try out for the basketball team? Does that decision represent low ability bias and high discount rate bias? Memory, comprehension, and thinking are physical abilities too. That's why they are impaired by brain damage and aging. Someone needs to write a book explaining why smart people believe silly things. ~Alypius Skinner
