In the world of economics they have the concept of “Homo Econimicus” or “Economic Human.” This concept indicates that humans are rational beings that act only in their best self-interest. This is typically used to explain markets and economic theories but in most circles, especially the academic and professional/political circles, it is a quite predominant perception of how humans act in regards to their personal finances and economics.
Well, a lot of education on how people should behave has a very similar approach. I call it the theory of “Rational Behavior Education.” My theory on this is that most education is based on the idea that humans are totally rational and if provided with a good rationale as to why a behavior should be changed, the human will naturally see the benefit of such a change and quickly adapt the new behavior.
Let’s take smoking for instance. We all know smoking is bad for human bodies. But most education is focused on discussing the fact that it is bad for us, by telling us all of the negative side effects of smoking. I was a pretty extreme smoker for over ten years and this is what people would tell me over and over, “Your lungs are black, your breath smells, it costs a lot of money, it makes your teeth yellow, it causes cancer, oh, and you could die.“ Now, I know at one point in time, people did need to be convinced that smoking did harm to their body, but that time is long gone. We know it. We have heard it for decades. We know! But if we were totally rational humans focused solely on our own best interest, we would see quite clearly that smoking is not good for our body, costs a lot of money, makes us smell (which could prevent potential mating possibilities, maybe), and make our teeth yellow, makes our clothes smell and so on. We would see all of that and we would stop. But do you see the problem? Yeah, we’re not rational. Humans can be rational. We can be unbelievably rational creatures. We may be, perhaps, the most rational beings on this planet – maybe anywhere in the universe. But we are not ALWAYS rational. And educational efforts about behaviors aimed solely at our rationality that neglects to touch on how irrationality and emotion plays a significant role in our behaviors will be minimally effective.
In the world of Rational Behavior Education, if we could just teach everyone how to create and manage a budget, a person’ personal financial life would be sunshine and happiness. But telling people that smoking is bad for them and that they should budget their money is only occasionally, mildly effective.