34 Quotes by Cass R. Sunstein

As the lives of their characters develop, they end up on paths that writers could not possibly have foreseen – and hence give the impression of agency, even to their authors. William Blake wrote of his works “tho I call them Mine I know they are not Mine,” and characterized his process of writing as a kind of dictation, “without Premeditation or even against my Will.” Musicians sometimes speak in exactly the same way.

Economists suggest that we should assess the value of decisions in terms of two considerations: the costs of decisions and the costs of errors.

People are moderately more likely to favor approaches that involve reflection and deliberation.

By itself, partyism is not the most serious threat to democratic self-government. But if it decreases government’s ability to solve serious problems, then it has concrete and potentially catastrophic consequences for people’s lives. I.

Our favorite messengers are sometimes wrong and our least favorite messengers are sometimes right.

Janis believed that groups are especially likely to suffer from groupthink if they are cohesive, have highly directive leadership, and are insulated from experts.

We are blind to the fact that what we do to them deprives them of their rights; we do not want to see this because we profit from it, and so we make use of what are really morally irrelevant differences between them and ourselves to justify the difference in treatment.

In the United States both plates and portions have increased dramatically over time. A really good nudge would be to make them smaller.

Asked to resolve problems in a language that is not their own, people are less likely to depart from standard accounts of rationality.