Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

Don't Pick the Wrong iPhone

Trying to choose between the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus? Be careful to avoid making a classic decision-making mistake.

September 29, 2014 at 1:03 PM UTC

By Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of “The Cost-Benefit Revolution” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”

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If you're getting a new iPhone (because you're not bothered by the possibility it might bend), will you select the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus? A lot of people have been getting the latter, because it has a bigger screen, more pixels and better battery life. But before you join them, please take a deep breath. You might be making one of the most important, if least known, decision-making mistakes in all of behavioral science.

To understand the mistake, consider this scenario: You are in the market for a second-hand music dictionary, and your options are 1) one with 10,000 words and an intact cover or 2) one with 20,000 words and a torn cover. Most people choose 2, because they care less about a dictionary's cover than about whether it has a lot of words.