Spacious Lawns and Long Commutes: The Irrationality of Choosing to Live in the Suburbs

By: Peter A. Ubel

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Synopsis: Social scientists have discovered in the last couple of decades that people's decisions are often biased by an inability to predict what will make them happy. Many economists, however, have overlooked or underemphasized the importance of people's emotional lives in their decision-making processes. Standard economic theory, for instance, holds that if commuting is a source of unhappiness, people will choose long commutes only if they believe such commutes will raise their happiness in other ways, like bringing them higher pay or better living conditions. However, studies conducted in Germany and the U.S. have found that the longer people commute each day, the less satisfied they are with their overall lives. In this chapter, behavioral scientist Peter Ubel, explores the failure of the market to give us the neighborhoods and the commutes that we deserve. This chapter is excerpted from "Free Market Madness: Why Human Nature Is at Odds with Economics--and Why It Matters."