Lottery Ticket Effect

Psychologists gave it a name because it kept happening. Lottery Ticket Effect is the name; the happening you already know.

This is one of those findings that improves manners. Once you know it, you judge others more gently, because you can see the machinery moving inside yourself first.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

The housewife with her kitchen budget runs a tighter ship than most finance departments. She knows the difference between price and cost — one is on the tag, the other is on the month.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. Write it on the wall of the mind, not the wall of the house. The house already has enough instructions.