Speaker Series: Cass Sunstein (Harvard)

Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University

“As Judged By Themselves”
Do people’s choices make their lives go better? Under what conditions? Consider three distinct answers. (1) In many situations, human beings face a problem of “navigability”; they do not know how to get to their preferred destination, whether the issue involves health, opportunity, or economics. This problem is especially challenging for people who live under conditions of deprivation, but it can be serious for everyone. (2) Many people face problems of self-control, and our decisions today endanger our own future. What we want, right now, hurts us, next year. (3) In some cases, we would actually be happy or well-off with two or more different outcomes, whether the issue involves our jobs, our diets, our city, or even our friends and partners, and the real question is what most promotes our welfare. One way to answer that question is to follow the choices of active, informed choosers; another is to make independent judgments about welfare.