Abstract

People can and will, when sufficiently motivated, act as measuring instruments to tell you how happy they are if you give them something. People know how they feel when they get something, or at least they seem to act as if they know. They feel natural. There may be one or two questions, but you don’t get a sense that they are feeling strained. Of course, it is important to make the ‘something’ meaningful. We couch the something in ‘dollar’s, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t couch this something in terms of other goods and services. When it comes to taking something away from people, you have to be a bit more creative. People know what it is to give away something.