Why do we value short-term gains more than long-term advantages?

We like to think of ourselves as rational decision makers - dispassionate information processors, coolly and calmly, logically evaluating the costs and benefits of each alternative we encounter. But we're much more primitive than most assume. We may look like a Wall Street type on the outside, but there's still a good deal of Fred Flintstone on the inside.

We're hard-wired through the amygdala to react to emotions, not intellect, which is why we can have financial troubles. Just consider this example: Recently a team of Ivy League economists looked at how consumers reacted to various pitches by banks to take out a loan. A purely rational view would have predicted that interest rates would be the only factor that had an impact - the lower the rate, the more people will borrow money from that bank.

But the scientists varied more than just the interest rate; they also tested how persuasive other approaches might be. For instance, some letters offered a chance to win a cell phone in a lottery if the customer came in to inquire about a loan. The researchers found that many non-financial factors had an effect equal to one to five percentage points of interest.

An offer of a free cell phone increased demand among men by as much as dropping the interest rate five points. For a $50,000 loan, this meant some men were in essence willing to pay $16,000 more in interest to receive a $100 cell phone. So much for logical decision-making.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.