Discover how your brain optimizes for joy through mental accounting and hedonic editing.
Please assume that you love opera. Otherwise, replace the opera with a concert, cinema, or another event you enjoy.
Two weeks ago, you reserved an opera ticket for €100. Today, on your way to the opera, you realize that you have lost €100.
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Would you still buy the ticket? |
Please indicate whether you would prefer to experience the following events bundled on one day or spread out across different days.
| On one day | On separate days | |
|---|---|---|
| Sprain an ankle, sign a loan application, argue with your boss | ||
| Meet your future life partner, inherit a small fortune, get promoted | ||
| A close relative dies, your business goes bankrupt, your investments for retirement have halved because a fund had to shut down | ||
| A tax refund, praise from the boss, a surprise birthday party |
Imagine you have decided to see a play and the admission is $50 per ticket. As you enter the theater, you discover that you have lost the ticket you already paid for. The seat was not marked, and the ticket cannot be recovered.
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Will you buy the ticket again? |
Human brains have a tendency to optimize for joy. Many people behave inconsistently in Questions 1 and 3: they are more likely to buy a new ticket if they lost the money, but less likely to buy it again if they lost the ticket.
Why does this happen? Subconsciously, we tend to organize money into mental “drawers” or budgets — for example, a certain amount per month for clothing, food, or entertainment.
If a ticket is lost, it often feels as if the entertainment budget has already been spent, so buying another ticket feels like exceeding that budget. When the money itself is lost, however, it has not yet been assigned to any specific mental drawer. As a result, many people are more willing to buy the ticket again.
This is closely connected to hedonic editing — the tendency to optimize how we mentally bundle experiences in order to maximize subjective well-being.
In general, people prefer to separate positive experiences and bundle negative ones, unless the negative experiences are perceived as too severe.
These preferences reflect how individuals unconsciously organize experiences to optimize thinking and feeling for joy. Hedonic editing is another clear example of the automatisms that guide human decision-making.
