Irrationality Incentive Quotes by Bryan Caplan

In a modern democracy, not only can a libertarian be elitist; a libertarian has to be elitist. To be a libertarian in a modern…

— Bryan Caplan

There are two sources of error: Either you lack sufficient data, or you fail to take advantage of the data that you have.

— Bryan Caplan

“My findings may not be watertight, but they are more than seaworthy.”

— Bryan Caplan

If you can't feel secure - and teach your children to feel secure - about 1-in-610,000 nightmare scenarios - the problem isn't the world.…

— Bryan Caplan

Let us designate anarchism1 anarchism as you define it. Let us desiginate anarchism2 anarchism as I and the American Heritage College Dictionary define it.

— Bryan Caplan

The best social insurance is to make more progress, not to make more work

— Bryan Caplan

The use of force is easy to rationalize in terms of basic economics. 'We should make them PAY for what they've done!' It's just…

— Bryan Caplan

“It is irrational to be politically well-informed because the low returns from data simply do not justify their cost in time and other resources.”

— Bryan Caplan

Worldviews are more a mental security blanket than a serious effort to understand the world

— Bryan Caplan

“the ineradicable prejudice that every action intended to serve the profit interest must be anti-social by this fact alone.”27”

— Bryan Caplan

In daily life, reality gives us material incentives to restrain our irrationality. But what incentive do we have to think rationally about politics?

— Bryan Caplan

Sociotropic voters with biased economic beliefs are more likely to produce severe political failures than are selfish voters with rational expectations.

— Bryan Caplan